'Don't blame 11 September', says Gartner

The terrorist attacks of 11 September had little to do with changes in IT budgets and were merely used as an excuse for weak quarterly figures and redundancies, according to analyst house Gartner.

Gartner's market research team had just finished reports for its European IT budget prediction 2002 when the attack on the US took place. The company will release the revised figures in the coming week.

Before 11 September about 40 per cent of European businesses were intending to reduce their budget. After the attacks, 200 of the biggest European companies were asked again, and Peter Sondergaard, head of research EMEA at Gartner, told silicon.com's German sister publication, silicon.de, that the figure had not changed significantly.

However, there has been a shift in how the money is being spent.

Investment in hardware for IT and telecom infrastructures has been cut while supply chain management (SCM) is the highest priority for spending, followed by customer relationship management (CRM).

Sondergaard added: "Companies should not be scared to recognise new technologies. Otherwise they will have problems recovering once the economy starts to pick up."

Market researchers are expecting this period of economic crisis to last about 18 to 24 months.