Expect more investment reduction in IT – IDC boss

Vice President and Regional Managing Director, IDC for Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Mr. Jyoti Lalchandani, has said that Information Technology (IT) stakeholders should anticipate more investment reduction toward the end of this year, 2009.

Speaking at a one-day Information Technology (IT) managers forum and expo conference series, which held in Lagos, weekend and attracted an estimated 150 participants, he said it is no longer secret that the ravaging global meltdown has affected the sector.

“The IT market will most likely suffer from a reduction of investment in 2009 as many decisions will be based on a misunderstanding of the real benefits of ICT technologies. We all know that a properly prepared strategy is the best ally during times of crisis. And through this event today, IDC has demonstrated that ICT technologies, if used wisely, can be part of the remedy for dealing with the fallout from the financial crisis,” he said.

Presenting his paper, Mr. Lalchandani assessed the impact of the global economic downturn on the emergence of ICT megatrends such as convergence, mobility, virtualization, software-as-a-service, managed services, and off shoring.

He also outlined the impact of the financial crisis on investment for the remaining part of the year, 2009 and beyond, mostly on the Middle East and Africa in general, and on Nigeria in particular.

The event began with a roadshow across 13 of the region’s most important cities, is expected to bring together over 3,000 top Information and Communication Technology (ICT) end users along the way.

Running under the theme ‘Making IT Matter: Finding Opportunities and Defining Value’, the organizers said, the event attracted 150 leading IT decision makers from across the country.

The Conference Director for IDC MEA, Ms Ronita Bhattacharjee, affirmed in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel, that it was tailored specifically to meet the needs of IT and business executives, seeking to discover how technology could be used to enable and transform business models and processes.

“Some of the region’s most influential ICT thought leaders were on hand to advise delegates on becoming a smart IT buyer during this time of economic uncertainty, providing cutting-edge analysis of the drivers and metrics that will be critical to the IT market in the coming years,” she said.

The forum equally attracted partnership with Dell, Polycom, and FVC, Commvault, APC and Brother. While Dubai Internet City was the ICT partner, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek was the event’s media partner.

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