IT Cuts for 2009

Posted on July 20, 2008

Companies plan big reductions in contract staff, professional services, and hardware purchases — plus very little investment in cloud computing in 2009. Things are really looking tight.

IT jobs are looking very precarious — for contractors and full-time employees as well. Global services companies will also take a hit because of the slowing economy.

A recent survey showed that basic PC and network hardware, as well as contracts for professional services, would take the biggest hits from spending cuts. It also showed that companies are planning to emphasize economizing measures instead of new technologies like cloud computing

As recently as last fall, companies were anticipating no decrease in IT staff in house but by April, 15 percent said they would be making cuts in their in-house staff.
Contract staff fare much worse, with nearly half of the respondents saying that such staff would be cut. And 30 percent said on-site third-party service provider staff would also be cut for application development or maintenance work.

Times are getting to be challenging and looking to get worse before improving. Companies everywhere are seeking greater return on invesment (ROI) and with demand down, the logical thing is to remove those services needed during an expansion phase but deemed non-essential in the short term.