IT spends of governments will grow in 2017: Gartner

Mumbai: Global research firm Gartner today said the information technology spends of Centre and state governments will increase 9.5 per cent to USD 7.8 billion in 2017. Even though the research firm did not attribute any specific reasons for its estimates in the press statement, it can be noted that this comes amid a greater thrust on technology through campaigns like 'Digital India'.

The IT spends include investments in internal services, software, IT services, data center systems, devices and telecom services, it said. It also involves enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer resource management (CRM), desktop, infrastructure, vertical specific software and other application tools, it said.

IT services, including consulting, software support, business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, implementation, and hardware support will grow 14.6 percent to USD 2 billion in the year, making it the largest segment by spending. "The IT services market is led by growth in business process outsourcing," its principal research analyst Moutusi Sau said in a statement. The spending on devices, including printers, copiers, MFPs, mobile devices, PCs and tablets, will grow 12.7 percent to reach USD 917 million.