Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/da8f40/russia_information) has announced the addition of the "Russia Information Technology Report Q2 2010" report to their offering.

Russia Information Technology Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, information technology associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Russia's information technology industry.

Market Overview

The Russian IT market is expected to start to recover in 2010 from a double-digit contraction in spending on IT products and services in 2009. As the Russian market was buffeted by strong economic headwinds throughout last year, BMI projected that IT spending would contract by 21% in 2009 and not return to 2008 levels until 2011.

A contraction in PC sales in H109 continued the trend of Q408, with leading indicator data including consumption and investment showing little sign of improvement through Q309. Stronger sales of computers in the 2009 New Year holiday season suggested, however, that the market had entered the recovery phase and the pace of real GDP contraction narrowed considerably in Q409. In 2010, the Russian IT market is forecast to grow to US$15.0bn, up substantially on 2009 but still short of the 2008 pre-crisis level, which will not be reached until 2011. Growing computer penetration, government ICT projects and immense potential for IT spending by Russia's traditional industries could drive an increase in IT spending per capita from around US$107 in 2010 to US$190 by 2014.

Industry Developments

In December 2009, the Russian governments Expert Council of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (SAS Russia) on Developing Competition in Information Technologies convened a meeting on identifying problems in the IT sector. The council set up a working group to summarise ideas and proposals on the development of the IT sector, which were expected to be presented to the government in early 2010. The government has suggested that it will consider new measures if necessary to drive Russian government bodies to achieve key e-government targets. In a strongly worded speech in August 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev said that progress on e-government projects had been a disgrace and threatened to introduce financial penalties for government bodies that failed to meet targets. The presidents address echoed similar remarks made in May 2009 by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who also called for urgent drafting of a new e-government programme for the period up to 2015.

Competitive Landscape

In 2009, the rapid expansion of Russia's fast-growing retail sector continued to drive spending by major local players such as OKey and the Detsky Mir group. Detsky Mir, Russians largest retailer of children's goods, announced in January 2010 that it had implemented Oracle retail applications to support its strategic growth plans for long-term expansion. In November 2009, Microsoft said that it was considering launching its own retail presence in Russian in 2010. The outlets would be opened in Russia's largest cities and would be used more for brand development rather than as a new sales channel. Microsoft hoped that sales of its Windows 7 operating system, launched in October 2009, would boost local sales. Fellow US IT giant HP admitted that it had been hit hard by the Russian market contraction in 2009. The firm said that it expected 2009 annual output decline to be about 40% in Russia. However, HP said that it had outperformed the Russian IT market in the second quarter and that it expected to restore revenues to pre-crisis levels by 2011.

Hardware

BMI forecasts a return to growth for the Russian computer hardware market in 2010, following a sharp contraction in PC sales in 2009. According to BMI projections, the computer hardware market is forecast to recover to US$8.1bn in 2010, up from 2009s US$7.1bn but still short of 2008 levels, which will not be reached until 2012.

Data from Citibank suggested that retail spending on computers and software was up 55% in December 2009. Hardware spending will have support from a number of fundamental drivers including low PC penetration, rising incomes, government IT initiatives and industrial reform in many sectors. PC market compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the next five years is projected to be in the region of 14%, with spending reaching about US$11.3bn by 2014.

Software

The domestic software market is projected at around US$3.1bn in 2010. Spending on software is forecast to return to positive growth territory, after demand was hit in 2009 by the much sharper decline in PC sales. Going forward, the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15% to US$5.3bn by 2014, making Russia potentially one of the most significant global software market opportunities.

The domestic software market is forecast at around US$3.1bn in 2009. Although Russia has the fifth highest software piracy rate in the world (87%), BMI expects that government efforts to strengthen intellectual property protection will see this fall closer to average Eastern European levels, boosting the market. There are, unsurprisingly, regional disparities, with Moscow some way ahead of its closest rival St Petersburg in terms of enterprise resource planning (ERP) deployments.

Services

BMI projects an IT services market value of US$3.8bn in 2010, which will represent some recovery from 2009 when the market experienced a sharp contraction. The IT services opportunity is forecast to grow to around US$7.2bn by 2014 as the IT market gradually recovers from recent external shocks. The broader use of ICT in government and other sectors will ensure an upward market trajectory in the medium term. Systems integration is the largest IT services component, with as much as one-third of segment revenues and, together with implementation of hardware and software, probably account for about half of all IT services. However, more value-added services such as consulting and applications development are growing fast. Outsourcing is also on the rise, although below the levels in some other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

E-Readiness

The governments ambitious policy is that every locality in Russia should be provided with fixed-line telephony infrastructure, mobile phone coverage and internet by 2015. According to the Ministry of IT and Communications target, every populated area in the country should be provided irrespective of its economic weight and population. IT and Communications Minister Reiman has described the digital divide as a very challenging issue for all CIS countries and one that the Russian government was seeking to overcome.

Internet usage is forecast to see robust growth over the remainder of our forecast period. However, the current tight credit markets are limiting the ease with which broadband operators are able to source much needed funds to invest in broadband network proliferation. Coupled with the economic uncertainty, this is creating a troublesome environment for operators to plan their investment decisions. That said, growth will still be strong just not meeting its full potential.

Competition between the incumbents holdings and alternative operators such as Comstar-UTS, Golden Telecom and Net By Net will continue to drive the sector forward. Continued expansion of networks, both fixed and wireless, should see penetration increasing in the regions, while uptake remains strong in the more urbanised areas. Alternative technologies such as WiMAX and fibre will also play their part in expanding the market, by introducing competition as well as offering services over a wider area.

Companies Mentioned:

• IBS Group
• IBM Russia
• Kraftway
• NCC
• HP
• Oracle

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/da8f40/russia_information.