A recent study conducted by IT Research in conjunction with the Club Decision DSI (French / European IT director association) found that most French IT directors expect that 2013 will be a difficult year for IT investments. In study, which was conducted with 150 top IT decision makers in France, 56% believed that this year would see an overall slowdown in IT investments, but that investments would take-off again next year. These findings were consistent with recent predictions from research analysis stalwarts Gartner and IDC.
Despite this challenging environment, tech innovations that have been transforming Enterprises around the world are continuing. Firstly, enterprise social networks are strongly taking hold, with 56% of the respondents stating that deployment of a social network within their enterprise is underway. In addition, BYOD (bring your own device) while still not yet the norm, is slowing but surely starting to take hold with 28% stating that there’s a strong BYOD policy within their enterprises. Green IT is also a theme that seems to of interest for an increasing number of companies as 36% now have this down as an important action item for them in 2013. Finally, smart computing (coined and defined by Forrester here), is also popping up now with 28% of participating IT directors stating that a project is underway in their enterprise. The types of smart computing solutions that IT directors might put in place can vary by industry however. Here’s a good explanation from Forrester’s blog of the types of solutions that IT directors are putting in place.