Corporate IT spending in Europe is likely to take a downward turn
over the coming months, according to Ed Zander, president and chief
operating officer at Sun Microsystems.
However the fall will probably be less precipitous than that which
hit the US in the early months of this year, Zander told Computer
Weekly last week.
And bucking the current trend among suppliers of cutting IT staff
Zander ruled out any redundancies at Sun in the short term.
With UK companies braced for an economic downturn Zander said that
shrinking IT budgets would put a squeeze on the price of computer
equipment. "As there are fewer deals, people will be competing
more. But there is more to selling than just having the lowest
price," he said.
Zander reflected the shock among senior managers in most of the
world's big technology suppliers that the fall in IT spending had
been so sudden and deep in the US.
"Chief technology officers just froze corporate spending because
they felt an economic downturn coming," he explained.
That freeze has already led to tens of thousands of job cuts, some
in the UK. But Zander said the company preferred to cut contractors
and discretionary spending - "you'd be surprised what goes into
postage," he said.
While Zander could put no time frame on when IT spending might
resume the strong upward trend that has prevailed in recent years,
he added that he was certain that it would pick up, as most
companies could still realise benefits from technology in improved
processes, and shorter product cycles and time to market.
Fiona Harvey