Worldwide IT spend will reach $2.22tn over 2014 led by the dominance of the US tech market, while the UK looks set to be pulling clear of the recession for IT spending, according to data from Forrester.
The biggest area of spending will be on software, at $568bn, while IT outsourcing will be $442bn. IT consulting will account for $421bn and computer equipment spending at $416bn. Communications equipment will account for $373bn.
Forrester said the US would be the dominant force for spending on IT services, rising six percent over the year and accounting for $877.2bn in spend. The biggest rise will be seen in China, with growth of 10.5 percent to $124.5bn.
Europe is also set to grow as the impact of the recession looks set to finally recede,according to report author and analyst Andrew Bartels, writing in a blog post.
"After no growth in 2012 and a small decline in 2013, a 2.9 percent increase in Western and Central European tech spending in 2014 in local currencies will feel like a boom,” he said.
Bartels said the UK would remain one of the biggest spenders in Europe, relative to its economy, with tech spending growing by 6.5 percent to pass $100bn for the year ahead.
Given this growth, the report urged IT leaders at businesses in the so-called ‘Tech Twelve’ nations – such as the UK, US and Nordic nations – to push hard on new projects if possible.
“Tech Twelve country CIOs can be more aggressive in their budget plans. Businesses and governments in these countries are eager to embrace new technologies and feel competitive pressure to do so given the pace of adoption by competitors in their own and similar countries,” the report said.
“With the prospects for better economic growth in these countries, CIOs need to stay actively engaged with their business partners and be prepared to move as aggressively as they do (subject to signals from the CFO that this is okay from a financial and budgetary perspective).”
The report also notes that spending on technology such as software as a service, mobile devices and tablets, and big data tools will grow in 2014, primarily in the Tech Twelve nations, as new ideas and ways of doing business present themselves to firms with renewed budgets.
Other nations face tougher times in 2014, but CIOs should remain nimble to any opportunities that present themselves.
"CIOs in continental Europe and Japan still have to worry about their countries sliding back into recession and have to plan for little or no growth in their tech budget," the report said.
"But even here the possibility of better-than-expected economic growth means that CIOs need to have contingency plans for where they would work with business to launch new tech projects if their economies improve."
One area that firms may well look to benefit from is the cloud and hosted applications, with IT leaders marking this as the biggest trend of 2013 in a V3 poll, and this may well continue through 2014.
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