Industry news

IT leaders 'must prepare for the sector's industrialisation'

IT leaders "must prepare" for the industrialisation of IT, according to an industry analyst.

Gartner said that many firms were failing to exploit the drop in prices of products and services that should accompany the commoditisation of IT.

The technology expert's research shows that in 2007, a quarter of IT spending was on "unnecessary and redundant" customisation and the analyst expects that though this will decline, it will remain at ten per cent through 2010.

Brian Gammage, vice president and Gartner fellow, said that as there is still a cost in switching suppliers no IT product or service is fully commoditised, but many products undergo this process, with some, like PCs, at a relatively advanced state.

"As products and services do commoditise, prices should usually fall, but conversely, for most enterprises, one of the biggest impacts of commoditisation is overspending."

In related news, Gartner suggested last week that IT budgets will remain relatively unaffected by the ongoing financial instability.

The analyst predicted that budget growths would remain at the same level of 3.3 per cent.