Jens Butler, principal analyst, IT services, Ovum
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| Austerity will be the mother of invention in 2009 | ||
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Q: What technology innovation or product are you looking forward to
next year?
2009 will usher forth a business landscape dominated by the global financial crisis. Organisations will be actively exploring new ways to cut costs, restructure operations and leverage integrated global capabilities.
These imperatives will flow through to the technology sector, with enterprises looking increasingly to industry for radical new ways to source and manage technology, including cloud computing, outsourcing and enterprise 2.0.
As such, critical areas of focus will be access to funding, operational funding, risk management, performance management and M&A.
Some of the specific areas will be:
- Cloud computing and virtualization
- Quality Assurance, Governance and Information Security
- Retained organizations
- Increasing focus on BPO, ITO and Offshoring
- Green IT and Sustainable solutions and their impacts
- Enterprise 2.0 and the benefits associated with it
- How will the Economic Flux/Downturn impact strategies, procurement, servicing and operations
Was there a technology release which failed to live up to its hype and disappointed you this year?
Anything around convergence, and the Web and Enterprise 2.0 trend. General takeup within the enterprise has been less impressive due to the controls put in place and the fear associated with corporate identity risk.
What are some challenges which will IT departments next year, and will there be any new challenges?
From a business perspective, austerity will be the mother of invention in 2009, with the primary drivers being cost leadership strategies and thus, the priority very much driven by responding to the impact of the global financial crisis.
Even in the darkest reaches of a recession, clients will continue to expect quality services delivered at appropriate pricing levels with continual improvements to both. It is vital that vendors retain a sense of perspective: the recession will end; demand for IT services will recover. We do not for one moment suggest that economic conditions will turn around in a few months and we can go back to business as usual. The market will continue to evolve and vendors' strategies must evolve with it.
Expect an increase in demand for outsourcing, especially offshoring and to add extra impetus, a closer alignment of ITO and BPO offerings, as buyers gain more confidence with letting go of non-core operations.
As such, a growth in virtualization and data centre hosting will be a big focus. As will the growth of partner/alliances/eco-systems which benefits not only direct, but indirect partners and associated stakeholders.
Even in light of the recent satyam scandal, there will still be a focus on realizing the benefits associated with offshoring, maybe with a bit more governance wrapped around it.
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