German medium business IT spending reached $15.38 bln in 2004

In Germany, medium businesses vigorously endorsed the IT sector in 2004, spending $15.38 bln, up nearly 11% over 2003. Telecom investment, at $2.7 bln, showed a surge in equipment spending, but a decline in services adoption. With midsize enterprises in Germany predicting that their revenues will increase an average of 8% over the next 12 months, IT expenditures among MBs are expected to remain strong. Spending drivers include a push to enhance data security, as well as medium businesses' stated need to boost enterprise resource planning and standardize PCs on the most recent version of their operating systems. As seen elsewhere in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, OS upgrades increasingly involve a consideration of open source and Linux.