Compass Intelligence

Listen to How the Economy is Affecting the IT Market

Click on the below graphic to listen to my colleague, Kneko Burney, discuss how the latest economical indicators are affecting today's overall IT market.  It is a good listen and you can also listen to it on your iPod.  Enjoy!

I hope everyone enjoyed the July 4th weekend and festivities!  Well, it is that time of year to start our marketing and strategic planning for next year.  As we do this, I think it is important to understand what the decision-makers are thinking about.  In this case, let's talk about the greatest challenges they are faced with when it comes to IT and technology solutions.  We recently surveyed 1382 IT decision-makers and asked them "Which, if any, in your opinion represent the key IT challenges facing your firm in 2008?"

The answers are below.  As you can see in the chart, the top challenges facing these IT decision-makers include increasing the productivity of workers, lowering operating costs associated with IT systems, and improving their websites.  This being said, these are all good factors that can help guide your marketing messages, sales tactics, and strategic plans regarding your customers in late 2008 and 2009.  Others that topped the list include upgrading computers and managing customer relationships using the Internet.  What do you think about these challenges?  Will they be useful for your planning?  Please let me know if you have any ideas about this or other data we are collecting from decision-makers. 

IT Decision-Maker Challenges, 2008-2009

 Source: Compass Intelligence 04/08

Compass Intelligence (www.compassintelligence.com) recently surveyed 1383 IT decision-makers and asked them "Thinking about your company as a whole, which of the following carriers, if any, does your company or organization use for company-provided cell phones? Often companies give employees a choice of more than one carrier."  As you can see below, the numbers look really close to market share data that you see out there in the analyst world, of course the numbers may vary but the comparisons of the vendors is pretty close to what we see out there in the news and analyst reports.  AT&T and Verizon are running neck-and-neck in terms of the top choice of business IT decision-makers for cell phones, while Sprint runs a very distant 3rd.  T-Mobile hits 4th with about 11 percent of the respondents stating they use T-Mobile's cell phones. 

 Businesses today are really looking for those providers that can provide them business-oriented devices such as Blackberries, Treos, and others.  They are also looking for devices that can help with productivity.  We also asked these same decision-makers about their top challenges for 2008 and 2009 and the top choice selected (44 percent) was increasing productivity of the workers.  This being said, devices including cellphones, smartphones, handheld computing devices, and even laptops must address each industries specific productivity concerns.  Applications that are moving to a mobile environment will be very successful if they can be marketed and even give ROI on improving productivity with workers across industry.  This means some applications will have to be specific to the industry in which the business user is in.  For example an E-Prescription application on a Doctor's smartphone or handheld, or access to  Manufacturing Execution System for a Factory Floor Manager.  I would love to hear about your thoughts on the future of business applications, mobile and non-mobile.  Please let me know what you think.  Have a Happy Fourth of July!

U.S Business Decision-Maker Choice of Cell Phone Vendor, 2008 (Sample Size: 1383)

Source: Compass Intelligence, 06/08

Well first let's talk about some of the bad things going on with Sprint...

THE BAD & UGLY

(1) Loss of 1.09 million subscribers in the 1st Quarter of 2008 - This was not surprising, but continues to put pressures on the number 3 wireless company in the U.S.  If I were to just look at the top 4 (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, & T-Mobile), Sprint represents only 22.2% of the market based on revenues and 23.8 percent of the market based on subscribers in 1Q 2008.  For revenue market share this is about a 2.7% drop from all of 2007 and about a 1.9% drop for subscriber market share.  The other 3 market leaders all added subscribers in 4Q 2008.  AT&T is the leader based on subscribers and market share.

(2) Qwest will start marketing and selling Verizon Wireless services in the summer through a five-year contract.  Qwest's contract with Sprint ends in Feb. How much does this cost the company?

THE GOOD?

(1) Is Sprint on the Market? -  Deutsche Telekom  is considering a bid to acquire Sprint Nextel Corp. DT is testing the water on this deal, which will combine T mobile and Sprint to create #1 player  in the market.

(2) Will Sprint Spinoff Nextel and come full circle? - Cyren Call, headed by Nextel co-founder Morgan O'Brien, is working to put together a group of investors to buy Nextel.  The company talked about the creation of a nationwide, wireless broadband network that will carry priority public safety communications.

(3) The best thing for Sprint? - Dan Hesse appears to be taking Sprint on the fast track by bringing new leadership, new focus, and in my opinion is just what the company needs to get back on track.

Here are a few links on some of the stories:

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2008/05/05/daily10.html

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/05/technology/deutsche_sprint.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008050505

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2008/05/05/daily2.html?jst=b_ln_hl

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB121037292846081709.html?mod=googlenews_barrons

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5767962.html

http://www.sprint.com/investors 

I would love to get your thoughts on the market in general.  Where do you see things playing out?

Stephanie