São Paulo – Half the executives in international companies in the technology field expect to increase their revenues this year, according to a survey by consultancy firm Eurocom Worldwide. The revenue increase forecast for 2009, however, is 90% lower than last year’s, according to information disclosed by Informare Comunicação, a company of the Casa group, which represents Eurocom Worldwide in Brazil.
In total, 335 executives were interviewed worldwide between January and February this year, including Brazilians. Out of all interviewees, 31% are hoping to post the same revenues figure as last year. Another 22% believe that the figures are going to drop. One out of four executives are going to reduce the number of employees in 2009. On the other hand, 28% are expecting to hire more workers, and 46% do not forecast any change in personnel.
"The figures suggest that even though there has been a steep decline in the confidence index, the technology sector did not undergo as strong a reduction as other sectors did," says Sandra Sinicco, CEO of the Casa group. "An interesting fact is that 30%, that is, one third of interviewees believe that the current crisis is going to have less of an impact on their companies than the dotcom bubble burst (Internet crisis) witnessed in 2000/2001," she claims.
The confidence of executives in the sector, however, has been affected. Nearly half the interviewees – 48% – are less confident now than they were in previous years about their businesses. In last year’s survey, only 4% were less confident than in the year before. But 13% are more optimistic about the next twelve months, as against 53% last year. Out of all interviewees, 34% regard the current recession as being more serious, and 13% believe that it has the same impact as the Internet bubble burst.
"Technology is obviously not immune to what is going on in global economy, but it plays a key role in terms of helping companies to cut costs and increase productivity," claims Mads Christensen, director of the Eurocom Worldwide network. The network is a global alliance of independent public relations agencies, with 30 associates. They comprise 900 specialists in communications from 60 different cities.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
