The Canadian Tech Market 2013 To 2014

Canada's CIOs and tech buyers continue to be more conservative in their tech buying than those in the US, with business and government purchases of tech goods and services growing by 2.2% in 2013, compared with 3.8% in the US. The economic factors that have been made them cautious — an up-and-down housing sector, a strong Canadian dollar that hurts manufacturing exports, and softer demand for Canadian natural resource goods in export markets in the US, Europe, and Asia — should start to ease in 2014, leading to better economic growth and a projected 4.6% increase in Canadian tech purchases. However, caution in tech buying creates the risk that Canadian firms will lag US and other advanced economies that are more aggressive in buying the new mobile and smart technologies that transform business. To avoid this risk, Canadian CIOs should — and we think will — tilt toward being more aggressive in their 2014 IT budget plans.