Government tech spending still on the up in Europe

Government spending on IT will grow across Europe this year but with some caution compared to the first years of the e-government hype.

In addition, local government executives are more optimistic regarding their tech budgets than their central government counterparts, according to the survey by IDC.

Just under a quarter (22 per cent) of central government respondents told IDC that they will grow spending for new initiatives, while less than 10 per cent expect to grow spending on maintenance and upgrades.

Demand for external services is also expected to grow, with 28 per cent of central government and 18 per cent of local government executives indicating the proportion of IT that they buy from external vendors will grow this year.

Massimiliano Claps, public sector programme manager, IDC European Vertical Markets, said: "IT vendors that want to capture a share of this IS budget need to promote offerings that target the needs of the fastest growing segments and build partner ecosystems that put them in the right channel."

A separate report by analyst Datamonitor predicts that spend on IT by Europe's education institutions will reach $7.7bn (£4.4bn) by 2010.

The bulk of the spending will come from primary and secondary education sectors, although the spending will be significantly stronger in higher education.

Datamonitor said universities and higher education institutions will make use of IT to help manage a large, expanding and more mobile student population. As digital technology becomes ubiquitous in the modern workplace, the pressure on education to produce ICT-savvy graduates will increase.