The current global economic crisis is often compared with the recession in 2008. It might look similar in terms of the uncertainties, but it in terms of the outcome it is certainly not that similar.  This is what experts at NILF 2012 say.

Lets Not Compare it With 2008

The recession in 2008 was business driven, while the phase that we see now is more at the macro economic level. There are uncertainties. Times are tough. But organizations continue to do business and seek productivity. And they are even more comfortable outsourcing their work than they used to be earlier. Few years back there was more hesitation because of security issues and other reasons. Experts believe that the fear is fading away.

The Euro crisis might have spread some fears across Europe and other areas like the Middle East, but there seems to be no dearth of opportunities there. Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Vice Chairman and CEO, Zensar Technologies, said, “Don’t look at Europe as one large piece”. Europe is a diverse market and different regions might differ a lot in their characteristics, strengths and limitations. Germany, for say, is seeing high productivity, but that may not be the case with other regions.

There is an increasing concern in the industry that global IT investments are going to dwindle as an impact of the economic crisis. Alan Ahearne, Economist, National University of Ireland, Galway, commented that typically 80 percent of the IT budget goes into core areas and the remaining 20 percent is left for new areas. When things become tough, investments in new areas are cut down first. The implication of this is not that there are not going to be any such investments but that every new investment will have to be justified in terms to the expected ROI.

Clash Between CIO and CEO Continues

There are often chances for a clash between the two, especially when CEOs want to cut down on technology investments but they also will have to understand the reality that technology is ultimately linked to better productivity. Ramakrishnan Chittur, former CIO, RWE and former CIO Siemens, put it this way, "CIOs does not do software projects for themselves but for the competitiveness of the business."

Opportunities Despite Challenges

As for now nobody knows where excatly the Euro crisis is heading, but the message that comes out from the discussions between some of the most powerful industry people is that there are opportunities despite the crisis and its going to be that way.