文章基本信息

标题：A vertical leap of faith - Editorial
作者：Doug McLeod
期刊名称：Computer Industry Report
印刷版ISSN：0889-082X
出版年度：1992
卷号：March 27, 1992
出版社：International Data Corporation

A vertical leap of faith - Editorial

Doug McLeod

Several questions have shaped IDC'S analysis of our recent survey of end users in the United States: What are the best predictors of buyers' purchase intentions? How do they contribute? Will they continue to influence users' buying plans as the shapes of corporate computing themselves change?

Years of end-user research have shown that at least two traits are strong indicators of a respondent's buying intentions: the industry in which a respondent competes, and the senior system at that site.

The industry in which a company competes (its "vertical market" in industry parlance) is a strong indicator of two types of IT characteristics: the applications the site is likely running, and the overall mission of IS staff. In addition, the general feelings of well-being, as signified by buying intentions, map more closely to vertical market than any other single major indicator. In this survey, health services emerged as the most overtly optimistic vertical, while banking was the least optimistic.

The respondent's host environment is a better predictor of the type of specific tools and staffing needs of the sites. That data can be used to examine buying intentions within new technologies such as client/server and distributed computing. In general, the least enthusiasm for these new technologies comes from the IBM AS/400 and System 3X customers. IBM mainframe and Unix environments tend to be most aggressive in terms of their plans for the new computing schemes.

There are more than two ways to slice the data, however. A third dimension, the size of the respondent's business, provides even further insight into user' buying plans. But it also muddies the waters by introducing covariance dilemmas. Future IDC research may examine the role that site size plays in affecting buying plans.

In the coming months, a fourth major variable will be added to the puzzle. IDC will complete similar demand-side research in England, France, Germany and Japan. Then, IDC's view of the IT users' universe will be even more complete.