Following a difficult year in 2001, the worldwide IT services industry will rebound significantly by the end of 2002, according to new research from IDC. The report, 'Worldwide IT Services Industry Forecast and Analysis, 2001-2006' predicts the market's value will exceed US$626 billion worldwide by 2006.
According to the report, the US dominated the IT services market in 2001 and will continue to experience an 11.8% annual growth rate until 2006. In the short term, the worldwide economic slowdown will continue to impact IT services spending in two ways: there will be slightly lower growth in the market as a whole in 2002, and the slowdown will skew the year's growth rates upward in some segments whilst lowering it in others.
All types of outsourcing will continue to benefit from the slowdown, whilst those projects that are seen as less urgent (such as discrete IT consulting) are likely to be put on hold. However, IDC expects that by mid-2002 pent-up demand will begin to force spending in project-oriented engagements like systems integration and custom application development.
Key IT services industry drivers include the increasingly pervasive nature of computing with the adoption of portable computing devices, the ongoing IT focus on efficiency and cost reduction within the enterprise, and the expanding opportunity to use IT as a tool to solve specific business problems.
The report reveals that, from a regional perspective, the United States remains the largest market for IT services, followed by Western Europe. Combined, the two regions account for 74% of total IT services spending up to 2006. Although Asia-Pacific and the rest-of-world region (Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) might not be as large in terms of spending, they represent the fastest-growing opportunity for IT services. Most notably Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) is forecast to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 21.9% for five years, and is led by remarkable growth in China.
This report reviews the performance during 2001 of the worldwide IT services industry, and forecasts corporate and consumer spending through to 2006. The forecast examines worldwide services spending by geographic region and services market. Key drivers and challenges are identified for each IT services market covered.
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