Analysts expect growth for some key technology sectors, while others will slow.
Gartner expects corporate IT spending to reach $4.42 billion globally in 2022, an increase of just 0.8% from 2021, the year in which spending grew 10.2%. But for 2023, Gartner expects corporate IT spending to grow 5.1% to $4.66 billion.
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“Corporate IT spending will continue to decline as CEOs and CFOs increase spending on digital business initiatives rather than cutting IT budgets,” said analyst John David Lovelock, Gartner Vice President.
"Economic disruption will change the technology investment landscape, boost spending in some areas and accelerate declines in others, but it is not expected to have a significant impact on overall companies' technology spending."
Not all parts of the tech world work well. An IDC analyst reported that computer shipments fell 15% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2022 as consumers and businesses tightened their belts. Apple was the only PC vendor to see an increase in shipments. Canalys said shipments of desktop and laptop computers fell 18 percent in the third quarter of 2022, after continued business demand slowed for most of the year as IT budgets were announced or cut.
Gartner's positive outlook is based on a July survey of more than 200 CFOs, with 69% planning to increase spending on digital technologies to transform revenue streams.
The analyst believes companies have shifted from buying technology to "building, configuring, and assembling" technology for business needs, which he says will underpin cloud spending relative to IT investment.
The Gartner software category, which includes cloud-related spending, is expected to grow 11.3% to $880 million in 2023. Spending on data center systems is expected to grow just 3.4% to $216 million, while spending on data center systems will decline by only 3.4%. Hardware increased 0.6% to $735 million. . Computer services will rise 7.9 percent to $1.38 billion, while spending on communications services will rise 2.5 percent to $1.47 billion.
“Companies primarily use digital technology to reshape their revenue streams, add new products and services, change the cash flow of existing products and services, and change the value of existing products and services.” Lovelock said.
“However, as organizations strive to achieve operational efficiencies, reduce costs and/or avoid costs during the current economic uncertainty, more traditional office and operational needs are being added to the list of digital transformation projects by departments that are not specialized in Information Technology."
