Who wants to lose money?

24-06-2015

By Chiara da Costa, Market Intelligence Analyst at Senior

 
Although the economic scenario brings some challenges for 2015, there are opportunities for the IT sector to obtain good results. More than ever, investing in technology is the surest way to find viable and creative growth alternatives – whether through cost reduction or productivity increase.
 
The figures released by the research institutes show this optimistic expectation for the year. According to Instituto Sem Fronteiras (ISF) – which interviewed 1,300 large and medium-sized companies across Brazil – IT investments will grow by 5.6% in 2015 and only 17% of respondents said that their spending will drop. As for the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES), the expectation is that in the second half of the year, when the government is already implementing the fiscal adjustment, the IT sector will respond with growth in investments in the order of 7% to 7, 5%, says the entity's president, Jorge Sukarie. If this forecast comes true, this year we will have a growth in the sector greater than the investments registered by IDC in the IT market in Brazil last year, which was 6.7% (including hardware, software and services).
 
According to the entity's recent research, the Brazilian IT industry registered an investment of US$ 60 billion in 2014 and is positioned in 7th place in the world ranking. The software and IT services sector alone, without exports, amounted to US$ 25.2 billion last year. Meanwhile, Gartner predicts that IT services will experience the highest growth in spending in Brazil in 2015. Of the US$ 125.3 billion expected to spend in Brazil this year, US$ 21.5 billion will be on services, which represents growth of 13.7% compared to 2014. But where are these IT investments going? Cloud computing, Mobility, Internet of Things, Information Security, Analytics and Business intelligence are the main topics on CIOs' agendas.
 
For the security market, the forecast of the IDC study is for expansion this year, reaching US$ 117 million in Brazil. Infrastructure and services for Cloud also indicate growth of more than 50% of the Public Cloud market in the country: the use of mobile tools will reach 1/3 of the employees of medium and large companies. The forecast of more than 130 million “things” connected in Brazil and, approximately, half of Latin America, takes the Internet of Things to a greater degree of visibility. Regarding the 3rd platform, the study predicts that “Application Development” and “Deployment” will continue to accelerate this year, reaching US$ 1,344 million. Finally, Analytics and Business Intelligence are expected to reach US$ 788 million in 2015.
 
However, only some of these themes have already entered definitively in the budget of Brazilian companies. Mobility is undoubtedly the biggest highlight of the year and appears in first place as a target for CIOs' investments in 2015. According to the survey “Before IT, a Strategy”, carried out by IT Mídia with CIOs of the 1,000 largest companies in Brazil, 59, 5% of respondents indicated this item as a priority within their companies. Next, information security was mentioned, with 55.7% of the respondents, followed by business management systems, with 51.4%.
 
This year the most discussed topics I've read have been cost reduction, productivity increase (management improvement) and innovation. Therefore, it is necessary not only to have information or to know where it is, but mainly to know how to extract, analyze and manage the correct information that will effectively support decision-making in companies. In this sense, the ERP gains special space this year. See which business management systems were cited by 51.4% of the CIOs interviewed by the IT Mídia survey as a priority item.
 
I recently read a very interesting article published by Orlando Oda on the CIO website about the main attributes or benefits that companies look for in ERPs. The author states that mainly reductions in manpower, costs, inventories and deadlines are expected. “There are also non-measurable benefits such as a reduction in errors that avoid fines, an increase in the level of internal and customer satisfaction, etc. Agility and speed in service are natural market requirements, therefore, ERP is no longer an operational necessity. In the current scenario, the system is an indispensable tool to ensure business success. It is necessary to consider the implementation of ERP as a necessary investment for the company's growth and not just as an expense to meet operational demands”.
 
Some people ask me how we can point out opportunities in the IT market if many companies are suffering from the loss of customers. Marcelo Sinhorini, executive director and co-founder of Portal ERP said in an article called The ERP Software Market is doing very well, thank you that the eventual loss of a customer is an internal environmental factor and not a market factor. “Companies lose customers in times of crisis and outside of it, this does not change. The loss of a customer is blamed on the company that loses it, but it goes to the competitor, buying new licenses and deployment services, that is, making the market spin”. It is not by chance that the software market last year showed excellent results, compared to other sectors of the economy. Difficulties and challenges we are certainly and will continue to face, not only this year. But as Marcelo says, 2014 showed that challenges can be overcome with hard work and, above all, intelligence. Companies know that they need to invest in technology, especially to improve management. And this is not today. Management problems harm results and competitiveness. And in tough times, no company can afford to lose money.