Remaining competitive during a recession

Mervyn King’s forecast Tuesday that the UK is to fall into a recession during 2009 is final confirmation that the economy is slowing. The governor of the Bank of England has avoided using the ‘R’ word as the media and journalists talk endlessly of the downturn.

Stories of the credit crunch are at large throughout the IT and computing press. Computer Weekly reported that CIOs are now considering whether they simply want to cut costs or use outsourcing in an innovative way to benefit their business.

Competition will be tough over the next two years; mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and closures of firms will have a knock-on affect throughout all industries. Organisations need to remain flexible and agile to a changing economic landscape.

We too have witnessed the consolidation in the technology sector as Oracle announced it is considering purchasing further software products to integrate into its portfolio of suites, including news last week it has bought Primavera Systems Inc.

Further to this we have seen more job losses within the IT sector, meaning costs and operations need to be streamlined ensuring products, programmes and investments are being utilised to near full capacity to improve productivity, lower costs and maximise on transparent reporting and data-consolidation systems.

The UK and Europe needs to maintain growth and development of IT and data systems to remain competitive with the emergence of Asian business. GITEX and the nature of Asia’s IT landscape has changed significantly in the past five years with Offshore Development Centres offerings and lower-costs.

Getting the right blend of onshore/offshore management ensures timely delivery, and higher quality return. The Asian markets can no longer be dismissed as secondary having already proved to be able to meet standards, fulfil business requirements and find solutions at the same level of service as the UK.

Throughout the ‘recession’ decision-makers need to keep the costs low but ensure the IT infrastructure is continually developing to hold their place in the global business community.

Heather Moore, Director of Mircosoft Solutions