IT spending to reach $3.8tn in 2014, with enterprise software in for biggest boost - Gartner

IT spending across all segments to grow in 2014, say analysts

Total IT spending across the globe will rise to $3.8tn (£2.3tn), with enterprise software and IT services accounting for the biggest areas of growth.

That's according to the latest figures from analysts at Gartner, who predict a three per cent increase in IT spending in 2014, up from $3.7tn in 2013. Between 2012 and 2013 the comparative figure was 0.4 per cent.

Enterprise software spending is predicted to grow by almost seven per cent during 2014, taking total spending on services such as cloud computing and big data solutions to $320bn (£196bn), up from $300bn ($183bn) in 2013.

Spending on IT services is also expected to rise by over four per cent during 2014, taking total spending to $963bn (£589bn), up from $922bn (£564bn) in the previous year.

"Investment is coming from exploiting analytics to make B2C processes more efficient and improve customer marketing efforts. Investment will also be aligned to B2B analytics, particularly in the supply chain management space, where annual spending is expected to grow 10.6 per cent in 2014," said Richard Gordon, managing vice president at Gartner.

"The focus is on enhancing the customer experience throughout the pre-sales, sales and post-sales processes."

Gartner forecasts that growth in telecoms spending won't be much more than one per cent, after spending in the area actually declined by half a percentage point during 2013, contradicting previous analyst predictions. The sector will however still bring in a significant proportion of IT spending, accounting for $1.6tn (£1tn).

"A downward revision of the 2014 forecast growth in spending for telecom services - a segment that accounts for more than 40 per cent of total IT spending – from 1.9 per cent to 1.2 per cent – is the main reason behind this overall IT spending growth reduction," said Gordon.

"A number of factors are involved, including the faster-than-expected growth of wireless-only households, declining voice rates in China and a more frugal usage pattern among European customers.

"The latter coincides in Western Europe with a breakout of fierce price competition among communications service providers to retain customers and attract new ones," he added.