"Colombia Information Technology Report Q2 2013" Published

Colombia's IT market is forecast to increase in value to COP6.0tn in 2013, representing a 10.5% year-on-year increase. Colombian IT spending is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.9% during the period 2013-2017, driven by economic growth, government ICT initiatives and improving infrastructure. The consumer-driven economic boom of the past few years may have come to an end, but rising incomes and greater computer affordability will result in more spending on IT products and services. Meanwhile, the government's Vive Digital ICT development plan should also help to underpin market expansion over our five-year forecast period.

Headline Expenditure Projections:

Computer hardware sales: COP2.977trn in 2013 to COP4.332trn by 2017. Slower than previous forecasts as there have been signs of a consumer slowdown. However, tablets are expected to be a growth area, with a strong uptake of the devices in the Colombia market.

------------------------------------------------------------
Full Report Details at
- http://www.fastmr.com/prod/589118_colombia_information_technology_report_q2_2013.aspx?afid=303
------------------------------------------------------------

Software sales: COP974bn in 2013 to COP1.508trn by 2017. We expect the greatest demand to remain in basic solutions, such as enterprise risk management and supply chain management systems.

IT services sales: COP2.090trn in 2013 to COP3.299trn in 2017. New sectors such as e-health, e-education and e-government service roll-outs will offer strong growth prospects.

Risk/Reward Rating: Colombia's score is 53.1 out of 100.0. Colombia ranked eighth out of nine markets in the Americas region in our latest risk/reward ratings (RRRs) table, behind all of its regional peers, with the sole exception of Venezuela. Despite the high growth potential of its market, Colombia's overall ranking was constrained by a low country rewards score of just 50, marking the country joint lowest in the region with Peru.

Key Trends & Developments

* The government's Vive Digital programme offers a long-term boost to the IT market, with a pledge to eliminate import tariffs on connectivity devices, and to take measures to enhance credit availability for such devices. Private credit growth has also started improving, and could mean an increasingly bright outlook for household consumption.
* The business sector also represents a large opportunity, due to the relatively low levels of computerisation among small businesses in particular. According to government figures, just 7% of Colombia's small businesses are currently online, although such businesses represent 96% of all Colombian enterprises.
* Investment in data centres, information management and security solutions are expected to be growth areas in the large company segment. Meanwhile, the government's ambitions to develop Colombia as a regional business process outsourcing (BPO) hub, which have enjoyed a degree of success, will generate more demand for back-end systems and services. Cloud computing remains a niche, but interest is growing.

About Fast Market Research

Fast Market Research is an online aggregator and distributor of market research and business information. We represent the world's top research publishers and analysts and provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available.

For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at http://www.fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156.

You may also be interested in these related reports:

- Brazil Information Technology Report Q2 2013
- Singapore Information Technology Report Q2 2013
- Canada Information Technology Report Q2 2013
- Egypt Information Technology Report Q2 2013
- France Information Technology Report Q2 2013