Credit: Yeshi Kangrang
Industry analyst firm Gartner reckons IT spending in Australia will hit $98.3 billion in 2021, representing a 4.1 per cent year-on-year increase and a turnaround from last year’s contraction in spending.
Last year, local IT spend shrank by 1.1 per cent, year-on-year, according to Gartner’s data. As well as a return to growth, this year’s anticipated 4.1 per cent increase in spend represents an improvement over pre-pandemic levels, which stood at $95.5 billion in 2019.
Now, it looks as though all IT spending segments are forecast to return to growth in 2021.
The analyst firm anticipates that the highest growth will come from devices, which are set to see an increase of 9 per cent, and enterprise software, with 7.3 per cent growth.
Credit: Gartner IT services are set to see spending increase by 2.7 per cent, while communications services are predicted to increase by 1.3 per cent.
This year is also expected to see a new dynamic in IT spend creep in as organisations look to establish long-term solutions, post-COVID.
“Last year, IT spending took the form of a ‘knee jerk’ reaction to enable a remote workforce in a matter of weeks. As hybrid work takes hold, CIOs will focus on spending that enables innovation, not just task completion,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner.
Globally, all IT spending segments—from the data centre to enterprise software—are forecast to have positive growth through 2022 with overall IT spending projected to hit US$4.1 trillion in 2021, an increase of 8.4 per cent from 2020.
Gartner forecasts the highest growth, on a global scale, will come from devices such as laptops, desktops, tablets, and mobile phones (up 14 per cent) and enterprise software (up 10.8 per cent) as organisations shift their focus to providing a more comfortable, innovative and productive environment for their workforce, said Lovelock.
