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IDC: 2007 a year of "hyperdisruption"
IT industry looking for new ways to grow...

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Thursday 21 December 2006

2007 will be a year of "hyperdisruption" for the IT industry as new business models and technologies are adopted and traditional market boundaries are crossed, says analyst IDC.

With only modest growth in IT spending of 6.6 per cent expected in 2007, IT industry leaders will embrace change to encourage further growth.

Globalisation, or "the great disruptor" as IDC calls it, will have a major impact on these new business paradigms.

The IT growth in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries during 2006 will continue but other regions will join them next year. IDC expects developing countries in Asia, Latin America's southern nations, the Middle East and Africa to play a greater role in IT next year.

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IDC also predicts small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) will assume greater importance for IT vendors searching for new markets to expand into. Scaled-down IT and software-as-a-service are seen as the types of products vendors will develop for SMBs.

Further disruptive influences predicted by IDC include offshore service vendors combining their BPO services with online software, greater competition in information access and management (including the growth of web 2.0), greater potential for virtualisation and continued shifts within the consumer telco market.

Frank Gens, senior vice president of research at IDC, said these changes will force companies "out of their comfort zones" and create opportunities for those looking to grow.