Printing & Imaging Blog

The InformationWeek study asked almost 400 IT professionals about the specter of recession in the U.S. economy, and 58 percent said the country is either already experiencing one or heading for it. How are companies coping? So far, less than half said they’ve been forced to cut IT spending. And what if they do have to tighten their belts? The first response will be to curtail hiring, followed by putting upgrades to infrastructure on the back burner, according to the survey.

Some respondents have already come up with creative ways to keep getting the technology they need. For example, the study quotes the sage advice of a VP and IT director: “People don’t buy quarter-inch drill bits; they buy quarter-inch holes.”

This insight comes from Larry Matthews at Swinerton, a commercial construction company in the San Francisco area. He recently used a head fake to convince the company to pony up a half million dollars in new storage resources. “We didn’t sell the company on new storage. We sold the company on virtual design and construction—new capabilities that require enormous storage,” the survey report says.

Better yet, the resources also give Swinerton “litigation support” for saving and calling up e-mails, a necessary component in regulatory compliance. “These were opportunities to show value to the business, and are things that can’t be cut,” Matthews says.

These comments illustrate two important considerations for solution providers, even if they never plan on selling a hard drive or a SANS unit. First, think business drivers, not technology, no matter what you’re selling. Second, see the big information-management picture that many of your customers are grappling with. The pay off may be printers, MFPs, software, and related infrastructure components that become “must haves” even in tough economic times.