Pathfinders for IT Industry

The current economic situation has hit the IT industry right on its face. IT spending in most of the sectors has got affected. Industries across all sectors have started tightening their annual IT budget.The dynamics of IT industry has completely changed. The focus now is more on optimization of processes, products and services. However in spite of the current situation there are some key areas which will lead the way for IT industry and they are:

• Security – Security is the topmost concern for any company. Physical security, data security and information security holds a very high priority especially with terrorism becoming digital. Terrorism is not only a threat to the life of citizens but also to the infrastructure, network, security and information in any company. Other security threats from hackers, phishing, internet security, virus etc would also loom large on all industries. IT security thus would be a core focus area in spite of the tight financial situation.
• Green IT – This is more about how to utilize computer resources efficiently. Green IT focuses on making environmentally friendly computing products and making them available for re-use. IT departments look to adopt environment friendly options, improved energy savings, power utilization and virtualization. There is a huge push from the government and regulatory authorities for need of Green IT in companies. Thus this area looks very promising for the future.
• Infrastructure Services Optimization – Infrastructure support services are the lifeline of any organization. However there is going to be shift in the spending pattern here. Companies would now look to optimize rather than expanding haphazardly. Models like Remote infrastructure services, Hosted solutions (SaaS) etc will take the lead when it comes to enterprise requirements within a company.
• Enterprise search and Collaboration – Search is the future, more importantly this coupled with collaboration feature is going to be too hot to handle. The growing size and reach of companies make it harder for managing the information within the company. Content/knowledge management tools like MS Share point, Lotus CMS etc will continue to be in demand.

After understanding the key areas let us have a look at the top sectors which will build lot of traction for the IT. They are Healthcare, Education and Public sector spending

Healthcare - Growing population comes with ever increasing healthcare requirements. The scale at which the Health care industry is growing makes it a very prospective sector for IT spending. Technology wise there is going to be huge need for access to real time information by doctors and staff. Also managing patient records and having a track of crucial life support system is going to be very critical. Healthcare domain is going to be a major area of play for IT companies.

Education – Historically during crisis time education sector have shown a drastic increase in the total number of enrolments. Increased focus from government on education, E-learning methods, virtual teaching, online enrolment process, real time access to information between teachers, students and parents etc are going to the change the dynamics of IT spending.

Public sector spending - Increased government spending on infrastructure and upgrading its existing legacy hardware and software applications gives rise to tremendous opportunity for growth for IT in public sector.

Thus it is imperative for IT companies to have a clear focus on the above sectors and the subsequent hot areas. In the heat of the current economic situation we may see a gradual shift in the offerings of IT companies to the above mentioned core areas and sectors. This will help companies overcome the current situation and maintain a decent growth rate.