Worldwide enterprise IT spending is forecast to total $2.679 trillion in 2013, 2.5 per cent rise from $2.603 trillion projected for 2012.
Banking, communications, media and services (CMS) and manufacturing sectors are expected to offer the largest volume of growth opportunities through 2016, according to a study by research and advisory firm Gartner.
“The global economic outlook has deteriorated in 2012, leading to scant overall growth in enterprise IT spending,’’ said Kenneth Brant, research director at Gartner.
“However, our third-quarter outlook points to more substantial growth in 2013, if significant fiscal crises are avoided in the US and Europe, and in subsequent years. Most enterprises have already significantly cut discretionary IT spending growth over the past several years and, barring a global economic catastrophe and significant contraction of operations, they have little room to reduce IT spending further over the long run.’’
Manufacturing & natural resources
Manufacturing and natural resources sector will lead the vertical markets with total spending expected to reach $478 billion in 2013, up 2.3 per cent from $467 billion in 2012. Manufacturers typically plan and manage a significant portion of their IT costs in expectation of changes in their sales.
Additionally, manufacturers worldwide have been steadily reducing their IT purchases as a percentage of their sales since the recession of 2008. The manufacturing industry's IT buying centre has adopted tighter IT cost controls amid a myriad of mixed market signals.
However, IT spending rates are expected to bottom out in 2013 and will be resilient over the long run, as business confidence is restored and the value proposition of a nexus of new technology forces — social, mobile, big data and cloud — is increasingly championed by senior leaders.
Banking & securities
Banking and securities sector will have strong growth in 2013 and is expected to reach $460 billion in 2013, up 3.5 per cent from $445 billion in 2012.
Banking and securities is an IT-intensive industry, spending about three times as much on IT as a percentage of revenue than the average of all industries. This trend is expected to continue due to a significant amount of IT required to run activities such as lending, payments, trading and risk management.
Communications, media and services
CMS sector is forecast to grow 3 per cent in 2013 to $426 billion, up from $414 billion in 2012. Firms in the CMS sector will typically spend about 5 per cent of their revenue on IT on average over a five-year period, well above the median for all industries.