12-Country Research Program Shows Some Glimmers of Economic Recovery But Highlights a Slow Return to Spending on Information Technology

PRINCETON, N.J., June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- In the fifth wave of an ongoing study of the impact of the recession on companies and their use of Information Technology, RONIN found that there has been some positive change since Wave 4 was conducted in February. From early in 2009, a constant 48% of companies worldwide had been "strongly" or "extremely" negatively impacted and, for the first time, this has decreased to 43%.  

The study also found that companies have shown different behavior during the recession than prior to it ... and these behavior changes are expected to continue when the recession is finally over. This "recessional realignment" has included an increased customer power that buyers have been able to exert during the recession, which is coupled with a belief that the "recession pricing" that many vendors adopted during the recession to make some (albeit lower) margins rather than none will be continued going forward. There has also been a shift to more flexibility and variability with fixed cost structures being replaced by variable cost structures. The cycle times for planning, budgets and projects have been decreased - the five-year plan is a thing of the past. Complex, integrated, five-year projects are being replaced by shorter, multi-phase projects with interim payback as each phase is completed. And risk avoidance has been evident throughout, encouraging companies to buy well-proven products from well-established vendors.  

The companies themselves are also splitting into two fundamentally different types in terms of the way they are reacting to the recession. About half are taking short-term actions concentrating on cost cutting and leaving strategic aspects until they emerge from the recession ("short termers"). The other half are taking advantage of the recession to re-think their business models and develop strategies which will allow them to emerge stronger ("strategics"). The "strategics" are embracing technology more and are implementing initiatives to expand their systems and infrastructure to help them emerge with competitive advantage over the "short termers." They believe they will emerge stronger, whereas the "short termers" believe they will not.

Harry Bunn, President and CEO of RONIN, summed it up: "We can see glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel for the first time in 18 months."  

RONIN conducted this fifth phase of the ongoing program in late May, 2010. Over 7,600 surveys were completed over the five waves across 12 countries - U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, China, Japan, and Australia. Respondents were members of the RONIN global IT Decision-Maker Panel.

RONIN Corporation is a global market research and marketing consulting firm with offices in Princeton, NJ, and London, England.

If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Harry Bunn, please call Jennie Koval at (609) 452-0060 or email Jennie at [email protected]

http://www.ronin.com

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SOURCE RONIN Corporation