IT buyer market research

CDW reports improving optimism among IT decision makers

Are things looking brighter for your customers? And, in turn, for you? It would seem so, as reported by the latest CDW IT Monitor.

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CDW survey: Midsize businesses more optimistic about IT spending, but smaller companies back off

Reseller CDW has released its latest CDW IT Monitor, tracking IT spending intentions across all major commercial segments as well as government accounts. The good news is that midsize businesses were growing more confident during the survey period in May. The bad news is that smaller companies grew more skittish during the month. Continued »

Dell’s New Year’s Eve surprise

Dell Inc. launched a major reorg on December 31. The move “globalizes” operations around three major customer segments — large enterprise, public sector, and small and medium businesses (SMBs). The press release posted quietly on Wednesday morning, making the Dell just the latest tech vendor to attempt to bury major news that could be construed as negative, before a holiday. Or so it seems. (The consumer segment was already handled globally.)

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Who, exactly, is feeling the IT spending slowdown?

Either every solution provider I know is brilliant or lying, or every IT decision maker is fudging their answers when they take IT spending polls. That’s because even though all the data suggests that companies aren’t buying tech or won’t buy tech or are too scared to buy tech, at least some of the solution providers I speak with anecdotally tell me they had a bang-up fourth quarter.

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Looking for a silver lining in IT spending predictions

Just wanted to officially add my name to the list of journalists and industry analysts seeking positive news, especially when it comes to economic growth. Tell me good things, I want to hear them! But I am obliged to update readers on two pieces of data that I came across in the past week that should be considered as you’re adjusting your plans for next year.

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Will the year end with a bang or a whimper?

The big whack that consumer confidence took over the last couple of months (as measured by the Conference Board) continues to be echoed in the IT buyer community, according to the latest stats from the ongoing, bimonthly CDW IT Monitor. Now, though, the anemia is spreading out of the commercial buying minds and into the government sector.

The monitor includes two components: The IT Value Monitor, which looks at the value that IT organizations place on technology, and the IT Growth Monitor, which measures future expectations for technology. In September, the overall readings for all three government areas (local, state and federal) slipped by four points to 70 (the lowest point since the CDW data collection started last year. The overall Monitor rating across all sectors declined by one point to stand at 72.

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Bad economy good for VMware? And Microsoft?

VMware posted strong financial results yesterday, despite the weak economy and increased competition from Microsoft.

The virtualization market leader took in $472 million in its third quarter — a 32% increase over last year and more than Wall Street expected. Ashlee Vance of The New York Times says VMware has a leg up when the economy is down, because virtualization helps customers cut their hardware and energy costs. But could that also be good news for Microsoft and its competing hypervisor, Hyper-V?

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An SMB CEO’s view on where innovation equals technology

Historically speaking, IBM understands better than almost any other high-tech company I’ve come across how corporate innovation can be facilitated by (or hampered by) technology investments. It certainly has plenty of research to illustrate this, including its most recent “Enterprise of the Future” study, which includes results from the company’s Global CEO survey of more than 1,100 chief executives.

Since I know many of you are mainly focused on SMB prospects, I wanted to share a few findings focused on midmarket companies as well as some thoughts from one of the midmarket CEOs I spoke with when the study was released a few weeks back. (IBM defines midmarket companies as those with between 100 and 1,000 employees.)

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Not buying it

Several times over the past few weeks,  Oracle execs have stressed that the company is not unduly exposed to the various earthquakes afflicting financial institutions worldwide.

That’s hard to swallow.

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IT decision makers split on impact of impending election

I don’t usually get pulled into politics in my blogs, but I couldn’t resist a recent survey released by CDW with some data pertaining to how the upcoming election may or may not affect IT spending. The research is part of the solution provider’s bimonthly CDW IT Monitor.

The survey conducted in July among roughly 1,060 IT decision makers revealed that 28 percent of them trust Barack Obama more when it comes to handling issues of concern for IT professionals. Continued »