IDC Free Research

2010 IT Spending and Storage Budgets: The Start of Recovery Drives Virtualization, Business Continuity, and Disaster Recovery as Top Spending Priorities

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

This IDC study is dedicated to understanding the effect of today's turbulent economy on companies and the future outlook for their IT budgets. Considering the volatility in the economy, there is a healthy level of optimism toward 2010 IT budgets. Approximately, 40% of firms we recently surveyed expect their IT budgets to increase over 2009 and also signal that storage budgets are expected to grow for 2010. Key spending areas in 2010 will be virtualization, business continuity, and disaster recovery, signaling that consolidation and ongoing business operations are business imperatives. Given that the economy is still not completely stable, companies are expected to be conservative in managing their cash flows by restricting investments on non-business-critical items. Large and medium-sized companies have been and in the future will be more likely to renegotiate contracts with their IT vendors compared with smaller companies. Smaller companies on the other hand have reduced leverage compared with larger firms based on IT budget size and limited economies of scale in negotiations, and as a result, they are more likely to change suppliers than larger companies.

"Industry storage spending has started to recover," said Laura DuBois, research director for Storage Solutions and Software at IDC. "Pricing pressures on IT vendors are likely to continue," said Jindrich Amaldas, associate research analyst for Storage Solutions and Software at IDC.

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Further Consolidation in Recruiting: Monster to Acquire Yahoo! HotJobs

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

This IDC Flash discusses Monster's announcement on February 3, 2010, of its intent to acquire Yahoo! HotJobs in the latest round of recent merger/acquisition activity in the recruiting market. Monster attempted this acquisition back in 2001 and met resistance from the FTC. Consolidation in the jobs board market today begs the question, what is the future of the formal "pay to post" jobs board? With double-digit U.S. unemployment, only 2 million openings and 16 million job seekers, social alternatives, and crowds of challenging technologies banging on the door, the future may not be all that bright.

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Technology selection: IDC Health Insights Western European Healthcare Industry 2009 Survey Methodology

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

This Health Insights study presents the methodology adopted in designing the 2009 IDC Insights and European Vertical Markets Survey. This study supports the understanding of two soon-to-be-published IDC Health Insights technology selection reports, based on a series of demand-side analysis for enterprise IT solutions and LOB IT solutions. These reports will be produced and published under the IDC Health Insights advisory service European IT Opportunity: Healthcare.

"End-user annual surveys across vertical markets, together with more ongoing informal interviews, and ad hoc surveys carried out specifically for healthcare providers sector, are a critical input to understand and support the explanation of trends in IT requirements, priorities, and purchasing patterns of healthcare organizations," said Silvia Piai, EMEA senior research analyst, IDC Health Insights.

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In the Know: July 18, 2005

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EDT

Welcome to the 11th edition of In the Know. In this biweekly publication, Energy Insights tackles the news and issues of the day related to information technology in the energy industry. This week, we look at energy trading, the acquisition of KW International (KWI) by Global Energy Decisions, and the future of broadband over power line (BPL).

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IDC's Worldwide Sales, Marketing, and Market Intelligence Taxonomy, 2009: Guidelines for Cost Control and Resource Allocations

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

This IDC study is a reference guide for budget management and cost control. It can serve as the foundation for sales, marketing, and finance executives to better demonstrate fiscal management capabilities to C-level executives and to improve decision-making processes based on standardized resource allocations. The slowing economy will continue to place more pressure on marketing and sales executives to control costs. In IDC's experience with hundreds of management teams, the best approach is for these executives to actively and continuously identify areas for better budget management — and do this before it is done for them by the CFO or COO. This 2009 version of the taxonomy is revised and expanded. It contains new definitions and cost categorizations for rapidly evolving sales and marketing functions such as digital marketing and sales enablement. These definitions and the benchmark guidelines that are paired with them have been developed over the past seven years in collaboration with industry leaders. At many IT vendor companies, this taxonomy is the de facto framework for the annual budgeting process.

"Using the IDC sales and marketing taxonomy, coupled with benchmarking against IDC's industry-leading Sales and Marketing Technology Benchmarks database, will enable executives to advance their investment management capabilities," said Rich Vancil, vice president of IDC's Executive Advisory Group. "Executives should use this taxonomy guide as a tool to optimize return on their activities and expenses across the sales and marketing functions."

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IDC's Sales Enablement Framework: From Marketing Through to Sales

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT

This IDC Insight provides a framework that defines sales enablement. It is offered as an organizational and process road map for sales and marketing executives who wish to boost sales productivity through improved enablement of the sales teams.

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Knock Knock — It's the Fourth Quarter

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

This IDC Insight explores the issues in sales productivity and performance. It provides guidance on key issues in short-term sales productivity and presents three key tactics that will help drive immediate, incremental improvement in productivity.

This document was originally published as a Sales Advisor Newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please visit www.salesadvisorypractice.com and follow the "Sales Advisor Newsletter" link.

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IDC European Vertical Markets Survey, 2009: Methodology

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT

In January–April 2009, the IDC European Industry Solutions group carried out a survey among 1,898 companies (with more than 20 employees) in the top 5 Western European countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K.

The results of this survey will be analyzed by vertical and by company size and will constitute the basis for a series of demand-side studies to be published under the European Vertical Markets, European Vertical Views, European Small and Medium Markets, and selected European Industry Insights services.

"End-user surveys are a critical input for research groups studying the business and IT trends, requirements, solution priorities and IT purchasing patterns of European companies across verticals and company sizes," said Giacomo Laurini, senior research analyst, IDC European Industry Solutions.

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Sales Enablement 3.0: A Transformation of Sales Enabled by a Transformation of Marketing

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT

This IDC study is intended to assist sales and marketing organizations with both strategic planning and more tactical sales enablement projects. Never have we more needed our sales reps to be successful and never have they needed us more — those of us in sales, marketing, and executive management. The crisis in sales is driven not by the economy alone but by an evolution in how buyers buy. Sales organizations, in general, have not kept up. For nearly 10 years, sales organizations have emphasized the desire to become "trusted partners" with their B2B customers. However, only one in five buyers will tell you that he/she is generally approached by sales reps prepared to discuss solutions. Too often, the sales engagement continues to be product led. Further, buyers will tell you that the pre-purchase experience is becoming a more important indicator of postpurchase value. Buyers increasingly consider "relationship ROI" as well as product ROI. And, buyers will tell you that, in this economy, they no longer have tolerance for uninformed vendor representatives who come through their doors. The technology purchase decision is rapidly moving from product decision to relationship decision. Here, we share more details on the buying experience, a model for transformation we call Sales Enablement 3.0, and an example of one of the more innovated sales and marketing collaborations that gets at the heart of "relationship selling" through role-based initiatives.

"The crisis in sales is driven not by the economy alone but by an evolution in how buyers buy. Sales organizations, in general, have not kept up. The economic situation heightens a need for change in how the IT industry 'sells' — better mapping to how buyers buy," said Clare Gillan, senior vice president, Executive and Go-to-Market Programs.

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Best Practices: Energy Insights Western European Utilities Industry Methodology, 2009

Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

In January/April 2009, Energy Insights, Financial Insights, Government Insights, Health Industry Insights, Manufacturing Insights, Global Retail Insights and IDC's European Industry Solutions group carried out a survey among 1,898 companies (with more than 20 employees) in the top 5 Western European countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. In total, 132 interviews were conducted in the utilities industry.

Concerning utilities, two Energy Insights focused reports, the basis for a series of demand-side analysis, will be produced and published under the Energy Insights advisory service European Utilities IT Opportunities and Strategies.

"End user annual surveys across vertical markets, together with more on-going informal interviews and ah hoc surveys carried out specifically for energy sector, are a critical input to understand and support the explanation of trends in IT, requirement, priorities and purchasing patterns of Utilities " said Roberta Bigliani, EMEA Research Director of Energy Insights.

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IDC's Worldwide Software Pricing and Licensing Taxonomy and Report Guide, 2009

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

This IDC study defines the classification scheme, or taxonomy, used by IDC's Global Software Business Strategies group to analyze the software licensing strategies of vendors and requirements of end-user organizations. IDC's software pricing and licensing taxonomy represents a fundamental view of the way software is created, priced, sold, and supported. This document includes:

General licensing definitions
A description of the software productization framework
The multiple dimensions of software pricing and licensing

All areas are described at an aggregate level and will be updated in studies to be released later this year.

"The purpose of the software pricing and licensing taxonomy is to help create a common detailed framework from which to build strategy and to provide a road map to help readers better understand and use IDC research," said Amy Konary, research director for Software Pricing, Licensing, and Delivery research at IDC.

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