Russian companies increase spending on information technologies

Russian companies spent about $850m on information technologies services in2001, which was 31 percent more than in 2000. According to the report 'TheIT Services Market in Russia, 2001-2006' issued by IDC (International DataCorporation), the leading players on this market are Croc, IBS and R-Style.Their share on the market of information technologies was a little lessthan 10 percent. The most significant allocations - more than 30 percent ofthe total volume of services - were made for projects in the field ofsystem integration, including network design and networking. Expenditureson the development of information systems, including new solutions, made up25 percent in the total volume of allocations.The state of this market is still defined by large projects, mostly in thebanking sector and extraction industries. At the same time, the report saysthe distribution of services among industries has become more equal, unlikethe several previous years. The share of international companies on theRussian market of IT services is still small. The majority of them arestill concentrating on the development and technical support for theirpartner networks. The only exception was Hewlett Packard, rated among thefirst five largest suppliers of IT services.Among services that were the most often provided in Russia in 2001, the IDCreport mentioned services for enterprise management systems. It forecasts asteady rise in demand for these services over the next several years.Consulting and outsourcing services were the most dynamically developingsector of this market and their volume was forecasted to grow almost 4.5times by 2006..