US Tech Market Outlook For 2020 To 2021: The Industry Outlook

This webinar covers Forrester’s updates to our forecast for business and government purchases of tech goods, services, and staff in the US for 2020 and 2021 overall and by industry.

Key takeaways:

• Tech market growth will slow. The likely slowing of US economic growth from near 3% in 2018 to 2.4% in 2019, 2.1% in 2020, and 1.7% in 2021 will cause total US tech spending growth to slide from 6% last year to around 4% in 2019 and 2020 and 3.7% in 2021. The risk of an actual recession and even slower growth in the tech market is still relatively low but rising.
• Tech budget growth will vary widely by industry in 2020. Services industries will generally see bigger tech budget spending increases than goods-producing industries. Industries that engage directly with US consumers — healthcare, education providers, and media and entertainment companies — will see bigger tech budget increases than industries focused on selling to other businesses or overseas. Industries experiencing the most digital disruption like media and high-tech will have higher tech budget growth than industries that are less affected.
• Business technology (BT) adoption will also vary by industry. The percentage of industry tech budgets devoted to business technologies that help firms win, serve, and retain customers will range from a high of 34% in 2020 to a low of 24%. Consumer-oriented firms like retailers and financial services firms will spend well above the US average of 31% of tech budgets on BT software, services, and staff. Manufacturers and services industries will spend at or below this figure.
• Financial services, media, and high-tech firms spend the most on tech relative to revenues. Firms in these industries have tech budgets that average 7.5% or more of revenues. Manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers tend to devote less than 2% of total revenues to technology.

Target audience level: intermediate