Asia Pacific organisations are expected to increase their software budgets by 4.4% on average in 2010, while overall IT budgets are expected to decline by 3.1% on average, according to a new research report by Gartner. The research shows that 38% of organisations in Asia Pacific are expected to increase their software budgets in 2010, while 31% are expected to increase their overall IT budget.
Gartner surveyed 323 IT managers in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, India and Hong Kong, as part of a worldwide survey of 982 respondents. According to the report, India is the most aggressive with a software budget allocation of 26.9%, followed by Singapore (25.8 %), Malaysia (24.1%) and China (23.1%).
The survey showed that India and China respondents remain positive and plan to increase their IT spending in 2010, whereas, Malaysia and Singapore respondents remain pessimistic and intend to decrease their spending in 2010.
Yanna Dharmasthira, research director of Gartner, said: “For most organisations, the budgeting process happens once a year, but adjusting the IT budget is a continuous exercise that is driven by economic conditions and changes in the business.
“In the midst of economic volatility, hardware budget allocation remains the top priority in most countries, but software budgets are a real bright spot and continue to demonstrate a positive outlook, although more cautious when compared with last year’s survey.”
Among the software segments, customer relationship management (CRM) showed the highest number of respondents intending to increase spending, followed by respondents in office applications, collaboration and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software respectively.
The survey showed that software as a service (SaaS) spending continues to be fragmented within Asia Pacific, with variation by country, vertical and software segments. Plans to use SaaS in the future are the highest in Hong Kong, followed by India and China.
Gartner recommends that software vendors in Asia Pacific continue to build, fund and invest in sales and marketing, despite economic volatility. Ms Dharmasthira said that vendors should revisit their potential customer list, as they may have shifted in terms of geography and market segments.
