Outlook brightens for SME IT spending

Small and medium-sized firms resume IT purchasing

Small and medium-sized businesses are increasing the amount they spend on software, reflecting cautious optimism about the state of the economy, according to business software maker Sage.

It reported a three per cent rise in sales of its software in the second half of its fiscal year, the first time its software revenues have increased since 2007.

“Our principal markets continued their gradual recovery,” said Sage chief executive Guy Berruyer.

Sage’s results back up a recent report from investment group James Reynolds & Associates that noted that enterprise IT spending rose strongly in 2010 and to a lesser extent for small and medium-sized firms.

But its report suggested that most spending had gone on storage, networking and PCs rather than software.

Earlier this month, analyst firm Gartner predicted global IT budgets would rise by five per cent this year.