Eurocom Worldwide Technology Survey 2008

Executive Summary

Each year Eurocom Worldwide surveys hundreds of IT business leaders and senior industry executives around the globe measuring the sentiments and confidence levels of professionals in the technology sector. This year over 350 senior executives responded to our survey. The survey was conducted via the Internet, and field work ended in December 2007.

As in previous years the survey polled the levels of confidence felt by IT executives about the year ahead in the IT industry. A robust 53% said they were more confident about the year ahead than they were 12 months ago, and more than half also indicated that they think the tech industry will pass through the present finanical market turmoil relatively unscathed. 88% expect revenues to increase, and 68% expect employment levels to rise. These all indicate a positive outlook among IT executives.

However, nearly half of respondents also expect it to be a challenge to actually hire suitable staff for IT jobs, 48% saying it will be more difficult than in previous years to fill vacant positions. When asked which roles will be most difficult to fill, the respondents say that software engineering, international sales and project management will be most difficult.

Other main findings of the 2008 survey are:

Jobs Transfer: The survey confirms the flow of tech manufacturing as well as services jobs to lower cost centres. 65.5% say that their country is losing IT manufacturing jobs to locations such as China, India and Central & Eastern Europe. 50% say that IT services jobs are also being exported to lower cost centres.

Internet Marketing: 79% highlight the importance of search engines and their impact on corporate communications and marketing. This reflects the growing importance of web search engine technologies in sorting and presenting increasing amounts of information to web users, regardless of whether they are professional users or consumers.

Marketing Spend: 59% expect the company they work for to increase expenditure on Internet advertising in 2008. Internet marketing is rated as the best value for money in the marketing communications mix (43% of respondents) just ahead of Public Relations (42%) and well ahead of traditional technology industry marketing methods such as trade shows and exhibitions (13%).

Have Blog: 28% of respondents say they or their company have a blog. 16% expect to adopt one in the next year. 47% do not blog, and main reasons for this are that they don't see the value (42%) or it is too time consuming (32%). The Eurocom Worldwide Survey finds that of those who blog, 50% do so to improve interaction with the public or with customers. 21% blog to participate in industry debate and issues. 19% blog to raise profile and 10% do so to boost Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

To download a Powerpoint presentation of the main survey findings click here.