Indian IT to grow at 15.5 p.c.: Springboard

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Indian IT market is set to grow at around 15.5 per cent for the year 2010, predicts IT market research firm Springboard Research.

According to Springboard's 'India IT Market Predictions 2010' report released today, the market is expected to return to a 'new normal' after last year’s turbulent economic environment, supported by financial stability, investor confidence, government initiatives and a shift towards a competitive and customer-oriented market structure, said a press release.

“Organizations are likely to initiate new large-scale projects that require significant IT infrastructure-related investments”, said Manish Bahl, research manager, Springboard Research. “With the CIOs primarily focused on allocating around 75 per cent of their budgets to 'keep the lights on', there is great interest in cost-cutting measures,” added Bahl.

Furthermore, Springboard observed a noticeable shift in enterprise IT spending from focusing on new investments to streamlining costs and improving internal efficiencies. Data center transformations, IT manageability advancements, SaaS and virtualization investments are also helping companies drive 'economies of scale' by reducing operational expenditures, both from the business and IT perspective, while increasing productivity.

“Vendors’ ability to take services such as remote infrastructure management, desktop management, and other managed services beyond large enterprises to SMBs is the key to success,” advised Bahl. “However, vendors can expect to cater to very cautious and increasingly skeptical set of IT buyers and prospects. They can also expect the sales cycle and the quality of prospects to improve but to be more challenging than before.”

Springboard also said that that the recent global economic and financial crisis has provided an impetus to Indian companies to be more productive and gain maturity from both a business and IT perspective.