DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Oct. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The CompTIA IT Industry Business Confidence Index rebounded in Q4 with an increase of 2.2 percentage points, reversing two consecutive quarters of decline.
The index – published quarterly by CompTIA, the IT industry association – now stands at 62.8 on a 100-point scale. The CompTIA IT Industry Business Confidence Index is based on IT executives' opinions of the U.S. economy, the IT industry and their own company. All three components of the index recorded gains in Q4, with the rating of the overall economy achieving the largest increase.
"Overall, I'm hearing positive reports from colleagues, business partners and clients," said MJ Shoer, president and virtual chief technology officer, Jenaly Technology Group, Inc., Portsmouth, N.H., and chair of the CompTIA Board of Directors.
"We're seeing more and larger opportunities coming to the table as some businesses, who've historically tried to manage IT internally, realize they can accelerate their adoptions and efficiencies through outsourcing," Shoer continued. "We're also seeing a strong uptick in cloud migrations."
Heading into the final months of 2015, 65 percent of IT executives surveyed say their companies are on track to meet their sales goals for the year.
"Though down slightly from earlier this year, a healthy percentage of companies expect to meet or exceed revenue goals for 2015, indicating the broad based strength in the IT sector," said Tim Herbert, senior vice president, research and market intelligence, CompTIA.
When asked why they're in position to meet or exceed sales goals, 23 percent of executives in the CompTIA survey say they've successfully reached new customer segments tops this year. Similarly, 17 percent report a pick-up in business from existing customers.
For other firms, success comes from improvements in internal operations, allowing them to perform more efficiently and more profitably (cited by 21 percent of executives).
Still, there are concerns, led by worries about customers' willingness or ability to invest in IT products and services.
"Six in 10 firms report seeing some degree of customers' postponing certain purchases," Herbert noted. "About one in three companies say their clients have substituted for less expensive or opted for smaller IT purchases."
IT company executives were also asked how specific product categories have performed this year. With the caveat that this is a relative measure, where an individual's expectations likely influences perception, it reveals that most categories are performing as expected. For example, a net 76 percent of respondents say cloud applications and software-as-a-service sales are performing as expected or over performing this year. Other solution categories show similar net results: mobile devices (78 percent), security (80 percent) and servers, storage and data centers (80 percent).
The CompTIA IT Industry Business Confidence Index is based on a September 2015 online survey of executives at 335 U.S. IT companies. The complete report is available at no cost with simple registration at https://www.comptia.org/insight-tools.
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SOURCE CompTIA
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