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| GartnerGroup Warns That European Companies Are Seriously Underestimating the Cost of Transition to E-Business | |||
| E-business to consume 70 percent of $3.3 trillion annual worldwide IT spend by 2002 |
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GartnerGroup's European Symposium/ITxpo '99, Palais de Congres, 1-4 November |
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United Kingdom - 27th October 1999. Analysts at GartnerGroup's European Symposium/ITxpo '99
conference in Cannes will next week caution European businesses that they are drastically underestimating the costs of transitioning into successful E-businesses by a startling 50 percent. Finding and paying workers who have the ability to bring about the necessary changes will be a key concern to enterprises of all sizes. |
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| Analysts will acknowledge that although Europe is fast understanding the need to align its business and IT function, or becoming what has been referred to as an "E-business", in the run up to 2003, almost 75 percent of enterprises will under-budget E-business transformation costs. GartnerGroup will confirm that the much sort after "silver bullet" E-business solution will fail to materialize for many years to come and will also question whether any one single Enterprise Solution Provider (ESP) will be able to offer all the necessary software, systems integration and networking capabilities. | |||
In a keynote presentation highlighting GartnerGroup's vision for the most significant business, technology and management trends*, GartnerGroup's managing Vice President, Peter Sondergaard, will highlight how the transition to E-business is presenting a whole new series of business success factors and challenges that will determine marketplace winners and losers. GartnerGroup has defined these to be:
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| Sondergaard, alongside other key analysts from the GartnerGroup, will call on Europe to review these issues and act as a matter of urgency stating that the next 24 months will be crucial. | |||
| "GartnerGroup estimates that by 2005, 25 percent of consumer spending and 70 percent of business to business commerce will be "Internet involved," comments Sondergaard. "Whilst business leaders clearly acknowledge the need for fundamental change in the way they view the implementation of E-business, I find it troubling that over the next three years, 60 percent of E-business initiatives are likely to remain tactical IT projects rather than strategic business mandates that demand business process transformation." | |||
| Sondergaard concludes, "There is still an unnerving tendency to separate IT, e-commerce and business and as a consequence budgets are clearly being underestimated. Companies need to take a more holistic approach, grasping onto the idea that as we enter the new millennium, and as E-business strategies continue to evolve, the ability to separate "the business" from IT will become virtually impossible to accomplish." | |||
| According to GartnerGroup, the most successful companies are also likely to be those who can manage to select the best of new web enabled technologies and combine this functionality with their tried and tested infrastructures, creating a "hybrid" enterprise. Reinforcing this idea is GartnerGroup research stating that by 2002 less than 30 percent of "pure-Web" E-businesses will be profitable on an operating basis. | |||
| Furthermore, Sondergaard asserts that there is absolutely no reason to believe the myth that Europe cannot catch up with E-business leaders in the United States. "European IT infrastructures have a tendency to be more centrally organized and are therefore more robust. This central organization may also mean that although the US is seen to be spending significantly more of its revenue on IT, they gain no additional business value. Over the next three to four years, Europe should take advantage of this and bridge the e-gap." | |||
| GartnerGroup's Symposium/ITxpo '99 is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference providing business leaders with a look at the future of IT today. To accommodate the growing numbers of IT professionals who want to attend the event, whilst maintaining its high standard, GartnerGroup is for the first time limiting the number of registrations in Cannes to 4,000, and has announced it will launch an annual Spring Symposium, to take place in April 2000. | |||
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About GartnerGroup As the world's leading authority on IT, GartnerGroup provides clients with a wide range of products and services in the areas of IT advisory services, measurement, market research, decision support, analysis and consulting. Founded in 1979, with headquarters in Stamford, Conn., GartnerGroup is at the centre of a global community serving Fortune 1000 companies from 80 locations worldwide. GartnerGroup's unique capabilities and resources help bring clarity to the direction of the world's hottest and most volatile industry. Additional information about the company is available on the World Wide Web at www.gartner.com. |
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| More information on GartnerGroup can be found at www.gartner.com. | |||
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For more press information Symposium/ITxpo '99 please contact: Sarah Wadsworth at August.one Communications on 020-8434 5555 or email sarah.wadsworth@augustone.com |
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