Indicators for enterprise IT expenditure – including cyber security products and services – appear to be stabilising and in many European countries, reflecting a period of relative calm before economic lockdown measures are expected to be eased across the continent.
According to analyst IDC’s latest bi-monthly COVID-19 Tech Index update, European government stimulus spending continues to provide degrees of short-term stability. The situation contrasts to that of the US, where businesses surveyed now expect even deeper cuts to IT budgets in 2020 than reported to in the previous update.
IDC’s COVID-19 Tech Index uses a scale of 1000 to provide a directional indicator of changes in the outlook for IT spending. Its outputs are based partly on a global survey of enterprise IT buyers and partly on a composite of market indicators. These include overall IT spending plans and specific changes to budget allocations for individual technologies, such as cyber security.
These findings are calibrated with country-level IDC analyst inputs relating to medical infection rates, social distancing, travel restrictions, public life, and national government stimulus. A score of more than 1,000 indicates that IT expenditure is expected to increase, while a score of less than 1,000 points towards a likely budgetary reduction.
While the overall COVID-19 Tech Index in European countries remains below 1,000 – which indicates a contraction in IT spending – scores have edged up slightly compared to two weeks ago in the previous survey of IT buyers.
In countries such as China and Germany, overall IT buyer confidence has steadily continued to improve, IDC reports. “Indicators for enterprise IT spend appear to have stabilised, and bottoming out in many countries,” the analyst adds, “which reflects a period of relative calm before economic lockdown measures are expected to be eased across Europe”.
More information:
www.idc.com/covid19