CompTIA: Execs’ Confidence on the Rise

IT executives believe there are good times ahead for the U.S. economy, the IT industry and their own companies.

That’s according to CompTIA’s latest quarterly IT Industry Business Confidence Index, which rebounded in the fourth quarter with an increase of 2.2 percentage points, reversing two consecutive quarters of decline. The index now stands at 62.8 on a 100-point scale.

All three components of the index recorded gains in Q4, with the rating of the overall economy achieving the largest increase. The index is based on a September online survey of executives at 335 U.S. IT companies.

Heading into the final months of 2015, 65 percent of IT executives surveyed said their companies are on track to meet their sales goals for the year. When asked why they’re in a position to meet or exceed sales goals, 23 percent said they’ve successfully reached new customer segments, while 17 percent report a pick-up in business from existing customers.

For other firms, success comes from improvements in internal operations, allowing them to perform more efficiently and more profitably (21 percent).

However, there are concerns, led by worries about customers’ willingness or ability to invest in IT products and services, said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s senior vice president, research and market intelligence.

“Six in 10 firms report seeing some degree of customers’ postponing certain purchases,” he said. “About one in three companies say their clients have substituted for less expensive or opted for smaller IT purchases.”

IT company executives also were asked how specific product categories have performed this year. A net 76 percent of respondents said cloud applications and software-as-a-service sales are performing as expected or over performing this year. Other offering categories show similar net results: mobile devices (78 percent), security (80 percent) and servers, storage and data centers (80 percent).