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To: jbn3 who wrote (21984)	11/18/1997 3:35:00 PM
From: hpeace	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

PC spending in Europe..I'll get USA soon.it's up ====================================================================== LONDON, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- 1997 will be a good year for the European IT industry, with growth reaching more than 10 percent, and spending reaching US$210 billion, reports International Data Corporation's (IDC's) full year market statement on information technology spending patterns within Europe. This is especially noteworthy at a time when the business and political environments around Europe are undergoing considerable upheaval -- from European economic integration, greater competition, technological advances and the millennium. IT is ubiquitous within the business community and becoming increasingly important in the home and within educational establishments. However, it is precisely this ubiquity that threatens such calamitous consequences as the millennium effect kicks in. 1997 is perhaps the first year in which investments dealing with the year 2000 issue have begun to influence spending patterns. However, the scale of spending on the millennium is difficult to quantify given that IT investments are dispersed across certain technology or service sectors, reflecting the myriad solutions employed to address the problem. "Of course, everyone's problem has the same roots, but the potential implications and approaches are almost infinite," said Andy Doyle, an IDC analyst. "While businesses will look to IT providers or in-house staff to plan and implement solutions, those people can't really be sure if what they're doing is going to work." The millennium is just one of the issues affecting the European IT market. The single European currency appears to be just around the corner and anecdotal evidence suggests the year 2000 has really stolen the headlines as well as the resources to treat the impact of the Euro. As the deadline for both approaches there is consensus businesses will lack the resources to equip themselves for the consequences of both. In terms of what is currently happening, it has emerged from IDC research the current set of circumstances have provided a compelling reason to upgrade systems. "The whole market has been mobilized to satisfy this demand," said Doyle. "The principal opportunities lie with the services and software vendors, but there is hardware demand out there also. Hardware vendors that can provide the integration as well will profit from exploiting the existing customer relationship. These vendors can also take a lead in alerting customers to the dangers of the Y2K and EMU, with customers hoping for providers to take a lead." As migrations toward new technologies take place, one of the key elements of the nature of business usage of IT has been revealed almost by accident. While technology hype within the IT community creates the impression the pace of change is constantly accelerating, the reality within the spending community is quite different. "What the Internet, data warehousing and the millennium bug all have in common is their requirements span the traditional divides in the IT market: hardware, software, and services. With multi-dimensional requirements from customers, suppliers have had to become smarter in how they deliver their products and services, and there is a much greater pressure to ensure returns on technology investments. Standardization is the way forward," said Doyle. The compound annual growth rates of the 16 IT markets in Western Europe are: CAGR 1996-2001 Austria 7.9% Belgium 10.4% Denmark 7.9% Finland 8.7% France 7.5% Germany 9.3% Greece 11.6% Ireland 10.4% Italy 7.7% Netherlands 9.4% Norway 7.5% Portugal 10.7% Spain 9.1% Sweden 7.2% Switzerland 7.8% UK 8.8% Europe 8.6% IDC's new report, Western European Information technology Spending Patterns, 1995-2001, constitutes the definitive and most comprehensive statement on the IT market in Europe for 1997. The report provides qualitative assessments of the changing dynamics within the European IT market, supported by quantitative data gathered as a result of ongoing IDC research in Western Europe.