By Ingrid Daschner 'Crisis? What Crisis?' asked the British band Supertramp in 1975 on its eponymous LP. This is also the question being asked by numerous IT businesses. After all, every crisis has its winners, and some vendors – particularly those in mission-critical sectors like IT security – are certainly winning at the moment.
The fact is that investment decisions are more thoroughly thought through in times of financial strain and limited budgets. This undoubtedly separates the wheat from the chaff. Whilst in times of plenty firms will spend money on all kinds of gadgets, when navigating the troubled waters of recession, they will focus on the proven essentials.
And while some vendors slash their marketing budgets in recessionary times, now is not the time to shy away from a bit of publicity. Indeed, as market conditions get tougher still, differentiation becomes even more important.
For example, under the title 'Die Mutmacher' [The Encouragers], the March edition of the German magazine IT-Business showcased positive news stories from the IT trade fair CeBIT, and in response to its 'call for papers' it has received a flood of contributions.
It seems there is still lots of competition for column inches from many successful and optimistic IT firms – not just a few isolated good news stories.
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