After more than a year of declines, direct
market reseller CDW’s bimonthly survey of IT leaders is now showing signs that
the worst of the recession may be over.
The most recent CDW IT Monitor survey shows that an increasing number of IT
decision makers from small and midsize businesses—29 percent—anticipate making
investments in IT over the next six months. That’s an increase of 7 percentage
points from the previous survey in February.
Also, 18 percent of midsize business IT decision makers said they anticipate
hiring in the next six months, an increase of 6 percentage points since
February.
But in spite of these positive movements, overall confidence among IT decision
makers remains relatively low, according to CDW. However, for the first time in
six months the confidence rating remained flat with the previous survey,
indicating that eroding confidence may have stabilized.
"The challenging economic times everyone has experienced are by no means
over," says Mark Gambill, vice president of CDW, in a statement. "But
for the first time in more than a year, we are seeing green shoots that
indicate returning confidence in the IT industry. The fact that an increasing
number of IT decision makers are anticipating any amount of future growth at
this time is reason to believe the first signs of spring may have arrived in
what has been a gloomy economic climate."
The CDW IT Monitor is based on an online survey of at least 1,000 IT decision
makers from businesses of all sizes and all sectors of government.