In 2010, worldwide IT spending totaled $3.4 trillion, up 5.4 percent from 2009.

Gartner has raised its outlook for 2011 global IT spending from its previous forecast of 3.5 percent growth. In 2010, the IT industry performed better than Gartner’s previous forecast of 3.2 percent growth.

“Aided by favorable U.S. dollar exchange rates, global IT spending growth is expected to exceed 5 percent in 2010, but a similar level of growth in 2011 — while forecast — is far from certain, given continued macroeconomic uncertainty," said Richard Gordon, research vice president at Gartner.

"While the global economic situation is improving, the recovery is slow and hampered by a sluggish growth outlook in the important mature economies of the U.S. and Western Europe. There are also growing concerns about the ability of key emerging economies to sustain relatively high growth rates. Nevertheless, as well as a fundamental enabler of cost reduction and cost optimization, investment in IT is seen increasingly as an important element in business growth strategies. As the global economy repairs itself in coming years, we are optimistic about continued healthy spending on IT."

The telecom equipment market is poised for the strongest growth in 2011, with worldwide telecom equipment spending forecast to grow 9.1 percent.

The computing hardware segment is forecast to grow 7.5 percent in 2011, but Gartner analysts said vendors face possible challenges, particularly in the area of PC growth, given likely weak economic growth through the first half of 2011.

After declining 8.2 percent in 2009, U.S. IT spending will grow 6.6 percent in 2010 to $568 billion. Global IT spending, which fell 8.9 percent last year, will increase 8.1 percent in 2010 to more than $1.6 trillion. Software and computer hardware will see the most growth.

"The technology downturn of 2008 and 2009 is unofficially over," said Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst.

"All the pieces are in place for a 2010 tech spending rebound. In the US, the tech recovery will be much stronger than the overall economic recovery, with technology spending growing at more than twice the rate of gross domestic product (GDP) this year."

Global purchases of computer equipment will be up 8.2 percent, communications equipment buying will increase 7.6 percent, software spending will rise 9.7 percent, purchases of IT consulting and systems integration services will grow by 6.8 percent, and IT outsourcing services will be 7.1 percent higher.

On a regional basis, the strongest growth in 2010 will be in Western and Central Europe, where tech purchases will increase by 11.2 percent. IT purchases in Canada will grow by 9.9 percent, Asia Pacific by 7.8 percent, and Latin America by 7.7 percent. The weakest market will be Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, increasing just 2.4 percent.

"We are entering a new six- to seven-year cycle of IT growth and innovation that Forrester calls Smart Computing," said Bartels. "New technologies of awareness married to advanced business intelligence analytics make computing smart."

"Smart Computing rests on new foundation technologies such as service-oriented architecture, server and storage virtualization, cloud computing, and unified communications. 2010 marks the beginning of this next phase of technology advancement."
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IT professionals need to understand best practice guidelines, processes, templates and how to deploy them in different situations.

Following these best practices is not a silver bullet. They also will not guarantee success everytime. They will however, provide you with the necessary tools that provide you the greatest chance for success.

Today we will review a few best practice IT management techniques.

Align IT and Business

Align IT projects to specific business strategy goals and objectives. Do not start or continue IT projects that are not aligned with the business strategy.

Qualified Leadership

Make sure that each project has a full time leader with overall responsibility and authority for the project. The project leader should be qualified to manage the project size and complexity.

Be Competitive

Use information technology to improve your business competitive advantage.

Define Metrics

Define and track measurable objectives that are necessary for the success of the project. Review these metrics monthly and adjust the project as needed.

Leverage Current Technology

Leverage the investment of your current systems when developing a new system.

Project Organization

Project teams or sub-teams should contain 2 to 7 team members with a mix of technical and business specialists. Keep the project team organization small and agile.

Keep It Simple

Use the simplest possible combination of business processes and technology to achieve your goals.

Work In Small Units

Project work should be broken down into small units. A task should not exceed 80 hours and should not be less than 8 hours. The project should produce workable systems every 30 to 90 days.

Keep It Small

Break the development of big IT system projects into smaller functional projects to reduce the complexity and lower the overall risk of a big system project.

Project Administration

Provide each project team with a coordinator or administrator that help project managers and leads keep project plans and budgets up to date and accurate.

Understand Your Capabilities

Don’t take on an IT project when the complexity exceeds the companies capabilities.

Start From Scratch

When restarting failed projects, start from scratch. Don’t use the original design and project organization that failed the first time.

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But, if sales to small businesses are your bread and butter, you may not as tuned into the “use it or lose it” purchasing philosophy in IT spending.

For example, if you’re the science department chairperson for a local school district, and you have a $500,000 budget this year for computer products, you “need” to spend it.

IT Spending: Use It or Lose It

If you don’t spend the money, any funds left over will not carry forward to next year. And, the board of education probably will believe your department no longer needs the full annual $500,000 budget for computer products. Your department’s allocation likely will be reduced going forward.

So there’s a year-end rush to deplete the technology budget account; regardless of whether the timing is right for getting the best purchase value or controlling computer support costs.

Small Businesses Often Fall Into The Same IT Spending Trip

Just because a client is having a “great” year, quarter or month, your client shouldn’t rush out to buy every PC gadget and gizmo he or she has ever dreamed of having or heard someone gushing about.

As your clients’ virtual CIO, when appropriate, you need to act as their IT “grown-up” (be a little more sensitive in how you assume this role though) and remind them of the priorities spelled out in their annual technology plan.

Make Sure Your Clients’ Plan Includes IT Spending

You have a written IT project plan for your clients, right? If not, a detailed project plan not only keeps your clients’ IT spending priorities straight, a project plan assures your company a steady stream of recurring consulting revenue throughout the year.

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Joshua Feinberg helps small business computer consulting firms get more steady high-paying clients. Sign-up now for Joshua’s free one-hour audio training on Small Business Computer Consulting secrets at http://www.SmallBusinessComputerConsulting.com

Your clients depend on your firm to guide them toward reliable, cost-effective technology solutions. Along the same lines, your clients count on your firm to help them steer clear of “lemons”, or IT support “quicksand” in their IT spending.

IT Spending: Newly Released Technology is Often Not a Smart Purchase

If the first year’s depreciation cost of IT spending on the latest and greatest PC hardware doesn’t deter your clients, this might. If your clients purchase PCs with processors that have just been released, new kind of motherboards, revolutionary kinds of graphics accelerators or updated chipsets, they may get some very unpleasant surprises.

IT Spending: Your Clients May Blame You

Clients generally don’t like unreliable PC hardware. Many clients will even blame you, the highly paid computer consultant. Peeved clients with major hardware headaches can be huge threat to your firm’s survival.

Protect your clients’ IT spending plan and your company’s future by being very careful when it comes to being an early adopter with bleeding-edge PC hardware.

IT Spending: Shielding Your Clients from Early Adopter Risks

As the PC industry continues to experience unprecedented financial pressures, a lot more products are being rushed to market prematurely.In early 2001, leading IT market research firm Gartner Dataquest, announced that the U.S. PC market shrank by 3.5 percent, compared to the same period a year earlier. This was the first industry contraction in seven years.

One only can wonder if as the hardware giants reduce headcount, expenses and R&D, will consumers become their extended R&D facility? This revelation is really nothing new to the PC industry.

IT Spending: It Takes Time to Fully Test New Products

For at least a decade, PC owners and small businesses have had to consider their IT spending with a continuous stream of updated hardware device driver software and reprogrammable firmware updates.

The trouble is, from the time problems are first reported, analyzed, diagnosed and ultimately fixed through updates, your clients have to suffer with unreliable hardware products. If you’re looking to help clients control their IT spending, you don’t want your clients to be a hardware vendor’s guinea pig.

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Joshua Feinberg helps small business computer consulting firms get more steady high-paying clients. Sign-up now for Joshua’s free one-hour audio training on Small Business Computer Consulting secrets at http://www.SmallBusinessComputerConsulting.com