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STAMFORD, CT – A new report by Gartner, Inc., recommends that information technology and service providers plan their 2010 marketing campaigns, sales and service engagements with clearer value propositions aimed at the chief financial officer and strategic business unit leaders.
The IT research and advisory firm predicts a 6.8 percent decline in 2009 worldwide industry vertical market IT spending from 2008. The total 2009 projections amount to $2.28 trillion.
According to Gartner, healthcare IT spending in 2009 will total $79.8 billion, down from $85.1 billion in 2008, a drop-off of 6.2 percent. But the firm's analysts predict the overall IT market will return to growth in 2010, when it will grow at 2.3 percent to reach $2.34 trillion.
Gartner says the new economic conditions mean that IT vendors will have to deploy "account teams composed and trained to execute in a changed sales environment" and may have to target IT marketing more directly at CFOs rather than at an organization's IT leadership.
"This deep and prolonged recession has the potential to create a new market environment with stronger spheres of financial and business influence in many industries' IT buying centers," said Kenneth Brant, research director at Gartner. "Vendors should develop and/or expand financial models for project justification and sales training on selling to the financial buyer and business leader."
Gartner predicts financial services will lead all industry vertical markets, with IT spending totalling $502.6 billion in 2009. However, the firm notes that this segment will decline 8.3 percent. The agriculture, mining and construction market will experience the steepest decline in IT spending this year, by 9.2 percent.
The national and international government industry will show the slowest decline in IT spending as revenue decreases 3.6 percent.
"Our expectations for when the market will return to positive growth in IT spending – and for how strong that growth will be – vary significantly by industry sector, with the majority of industries expected to enter a period of sustained, positive growth in 2011," said Brant. "The three largest industry segments in 2008 – financial services, manufacturing and government – will remain the largest industry markets worldwide through 2013."
This story initially appeared in Healthcare Finance News.
