MILAN, Italy, December 3, 2002 - According to a recent IDC survey of public sector organizations in the major Western European countries, budget constraints are not expected to cause major IT spending decreases beyond the short term. In spite of the negative impact of the current economic uncertainty on total short term spending, the Western European public sector is expected to experience stronger growth compared to most other industries. This growth is mainly driven by the need to both improve internal efficiency and meet customer satisfaction standards that other industries have already achieved.
"Driven by the eEurope action plan and national modernization programs, public sector organizations are engaged in a transformation process that is expect to foster better services for constituents/patients/students and at the same time reduce spending in public services. Agencies must improve quality, accessibility, and the responsiveness of service delivery and grow efficiency and effectiveness of internal processes," said Massimiliano Claps, Research Analyst with IDC's European Vertical Markets group.
In terms of IT budget expenditure, survey results suggest that local governments are more optimistic than central agencies, especially in the UK, where local councils are currently investing significant funds to develop electronic front and back end solutions. Education institutions also have a positive outlook on their IT budgets, especially in France, the UK, and the Netherlands.
Security technologies, systems infrastructure software, collaborative technologies and knowledge management applications and database/datawarehouse solutions attract the attention of most organizations for future investments. Industry specific solutions are also very important, particularly to local government agencies.
As well analyzing IT spending and enterprise solutions trends in the Western European public sector, specific IDC reports focus on hot topics such as CRM, security, mobility, and new technologies. CRM solutions still have to start deploying their full potential in the public sector. Drivers of growth are the expected benefits in terms of customer service and response and accuracy of information and data.
The adoption of security technology is very high in the public sector across all surveyed countries, and investment plans to increase protection against virtual and physical attacks to organizations are aggressive.
The increasing reliance on network solutions and virtual systems to interact with constituents/patients/students, and the data intensity and sensitivity of many of these applications (e.g. citizens/patients records) are driving companies to pay more attention to the issue of IT security.
Many public sector agencies already have or plan to have mobile solutions. The most aggressive plans concern hot desking solutions, XML applications, and mobile collaborative technologies.
In the area of new technologies, many public sector agencies - especially in the government segment - plan to invest in voice over IP and IP VPNs. Healthcare organizations are focusing on wireless LAN while peer-to-peer computing and rich media video streaming represent technology areas of major interest to education institutions.
IDC's survey-based reports analyze horizontal and industry-specific IT solutions adoption and purchasing patterns of government, healthcare, and education organizations with more than 20 employees in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Italy.
The full range of survey-based reports available includes the following: Survey - IT Spending Patterns in Western European Public Sector: Focus on IT Spending and Channel Selection (IDC # PP08J) Survey - IT Adoption Patterns in Western European Public Sector: Focus on Enterprise Solutions (IDC # PP03J) Survey - IT Adoption Patterns in Western European Public Sector: Focus on CRM (IDC #PP04J) Survey - IT Adoption Patterns in Western European Public Sector: Focus on Security (IDC #PP05J) Survey - IT Adoption Patterns in Western European Public Sector: Focus on Mobility (IDC #PP06J) Survey - IT Adoption Patterns in Western European Public Sector: Focus on New Technologies (IDC #PP07J) These documents are available to purchase from your local IDC office.
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For more information, contact:
Massimiliano Claps
+39 02 284 57337
mclaps@idc.com