The UK\u2019s referendum vote to leave the European Union caught many within and outside the UK off guard. CIOs and IT leaders, in particular, may wonder how the pending changes in the financial and political landscapes will impact their organisations, vendors, and technology purchases over the coming months. John-David Lovelock, Research Vice President at Gartner, noted that business discretionary IT investments, which struggled during the run up to the vote, will suffer in the short term and the effects will spread further than Western Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the wake of the UK\u2019s exit from the European Union, some new larger, long-term strategic projects will now be put on pause and likely not restarted until 2017 when the outlook with the UK outside the European Union becomes clearer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
IT vendors should craft messages of hope or help that address data protecting, data location, ongoing support and privacy concerns.\u00a0For IT vendors, Lovelock suggested that this is a good time to reassure their employee base regarding immediate corporate planning. \u201cAddress concerns about office closures and relocations due to the leave vote,\u201d he said. They can also create an Office of Brexit to watch for impacts of any legislative changes and provide influence where possible.<\/p>\n
With the UK\u2019s exit from the European Union, and a tremendous amount of political volatility, business confidence erosion and price increases, there will be an impact on the UK, Western Europe and Worldwide IT Spending.\u00a0The current forecast growth for UK IT spending is 1.7%. The Brexit will drop this figure between 2% and 5%. In other words, UK IT spending growth will certainly be negative in 2016, Lovelock said.<\/p>\n