Indian IT mkt to grow by 18 pc in 2008

BANGALORE, INDIA: According to the latest Forrester report data, the Indian IT market is expected to grow by 18% in the year 2008 to reach $ 38 billion; clocking second highest growth rate after Chinese (20 percent growth; to touch $ 138 billion in size).

The report calls this double-digit growth as a welcome news for technology vendors - who see slackness in the US and European markets and advises them to now recognize India as a consumer of IT than just a supplier.

The report – The State Of A-PAC Enterprise Technology Adoption: 2008, gives highlights of data collected from 777 companies across the Asia Pacific region via Forrester's Enterprise Technology Adoption Survey (Asia Pacific, Q4 2007).

These 777 companies were of the 1000+ employee size from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, India, Korea, Singapore, Japan, China, and Hong Kong.

Forrester’s sr. analyst – Jonathan Brown, who authored the report says, “The IT sector has long looked to India for top-drawer technology talent. But India is poised to become an increasingly important market for technology vendors as its population comes of age (half of India's population today is under 20), its rural areas become increasingly developed, and its engagement with the US increases. It’s time the tech vendors no longer treat India as merely a skilled talent pool but also as a lucrative market in its own right.”

Citing the report data on India's most promising opportunities, Brown adds, “Indian firms will make the greatest leaps in application integration, ERP, CRM, unified communications, and security and regulatory compliance. In addition, India's cultural diversity, fragmented state governments, and socioeconomic disparities make it a microcosm of the broader APAC region. I expect smart vendors will use India as a testing ground for new business models and strategies to try out models for the next wave of emerging economies.”

The report states that though Asia Pacific economies are closely connected to each other through trade and cross investment, they differ enormously in their levels of economic development and the states of their IT infrastructure.

For example, while India, Korea and China show tremendous enthusiasm for the SaaS model, Japan and Hong Kong appear reluctant to abandon traditional development and licensing models in favour of SaaS. Brown advises technology vendors to tap Japan for services rather than software and be cautious in Chinese market and asks them to first determine what IT will not do with as much clarity as they describe what IT will do while in China.