Planning for the upturn

By Staff Writer for Gartner

Johannesburg, 08 Jun 2009

Global research firm Gartner says that despite the recession, now is the time for IT leaders to prepare for business growth.

According to Gartner, organisations should aim to complete their business plans by 1 July of this year in time for business growth once the recession starts to subside.

Gartner says in a statement that many countries are experiencing high levels of unemployment, rising home mortgage payment delinquencies and business bankruptcies, while also seeing reductions in consumer confidence, business earnings and overall economic performance.

However, Gartner adds that as the global economic climate starts to stabilise, organisations will see a resurgence in demand from customers. The firm expects this to start happening next year.

Plan ahead

Ken McGee, vice-president and Gartner fellow, says: “As these improvements translate into new IT project demands to help businesses identify new revenue and profit opportunities, companies will need a way to manage the already high project load with a new wave of projects.”

“We^1re not trying to predict when the end of the recession will take place, nor are we trying to speculate when credit market stability will occur, or when we will see consistent investment appreciation return to the world's equity markets,” says Mark Raskino, vice-president and Gartner fellow.

He adds: “What we are saying is that due to the lag in time between the point at which the economy begins to grow again, and when it's officially declared to be growing again, companies simply can't wait for an official declaration before they begin planning for better times.”

McGee says given that no one knows when business growth will resume, organisations may need to file away their completed return-to-business plans for up to a year or more. “The plan in waiting should be reviewed on a monthly basis and revised according to changes in the business climate.

“Having a completed plan will enable the near-immediate allocation of funding and staffing for IT projects, thus avoiding the need to take weeks to devise a plan after senior executives mandate the need to support business growth initiatives,” adds McGee.