Recession Insights: What's Up, What's Down, And What It Means To The Communications Sector

The recession rumbles on, and, although summer has arrived (for the Northern hemisphere at least), the economic winter looks likely to be a long one. Forrester's research shows some metrics falling but also other indicators that show there are bright spots. Our recent enterprise and small and medium-size business (SMB) telecom and networks survey fielded in Q1 2009 shows that revenue, budgets, and confidence are all down. In contrast, firms report still investing to save costs, and a significant number are looking at managed services as solutions — a more positive outlook for telecom and network budgets than we might have expected. To survive, vendor strategists must: 1) focus on industries and markets that are still spending; 2) act locally — the impact of the recession is not uniform; and 3) target managed services to help offset capital costs and provide technology flexibility.