Concerning Utilization Rates At Indian Outsourcers

Gartner predicts that IT spending will fall 6% this year to $3.2 trillion. TPI estimates that the value of global outsourcing new contracts has fallen 22% in the first half of the year to $19 billion, with no significant improvement expected in the second half. None of these numbers paint a good picture for the $60 billion offshore Indian IT industry. NASSCOM, the Indian Software and Outsourcing industry group, recognized the impact of the recession and predicted that the software industry’s growth rate in India will fall to single digits compared with 15–16% growth last year and 30% two years ago. >>>

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More SaaS Near 52-Week Highs

Through the economic downturn, marketing organizations have had to become more accountable to businesses, leading to a rise in the use of Web analytics. According to a recent Forrester report, 73% of businesses use Web analytics measurement technologies. The report goes on to say that US businesses will spend $953 million on Web analytics in 2014, with an average CAGR of 17%. Let’s take a closer look at the performance of Web analytics player Omniture. >>>

SaaS Companies Trading Near 52-week Highs

According to a recent Gartner report, the software as a service (SaaS) market is forecast to grow 22% to $8 billion in 2009. It is expected to show consistent growth through 2013 when worldwide SaaS revenue will total $16 billion for the enterprise application markets. SaaS companies Concur, RightNow and NetSuite are latching onto these trends and are trading near 52-week highs. Each of them has tremendous growth ahead as enterprises and SMB makes the transition en masse from licensed, on-premise, hard-to-manage software to the cloud model. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Online Travel: Customers Are Coming, But In Search Of Deals

According to a recent study, overall travel demand is expected to fall 11% in the year. The biggest impact will likely be on corporate travel, where budgets are expected to be down 15%. While the current quarter’s trends might suggest that demand is bottoming out, there is no denying that businesses are still restricting travel. >>>

Comcast Faces Stiff Competition

Even though more Americans may have more time to watch TV, as layoffs continue and working hours are reduced, the economic crisis has taken its toll on cable providers’ revenues. Consumers are showing that they are not willing to pay extra for high-priced premium packages or for a service that is available free. >>>

$96 Billion Water Infrastructure Stimulus

Dwindling water supplies are no longer just a problem in developing nations. Developed parts of the world such as California and Australia are also facing the heat. According to the International Water Management Institute, a third of the world’s population will face water scarcity by 2025. For a more detailed look at this problem and possible solutions, see Dominique Trempont’s essay Water Shortages: Opportunities for Entrepreneurs. >>>

NVIDIA Rising; Infineon Improving; AMD Precarious

Chipmakers AMD (NYSE:AMD) and Infineon Technologies AG (OTC:IFNNY.PK) made it on EEtimes.com’s list of “10 companies in trouble”: they haven’t reported profits in almost three years. On the other hand, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), AMD’s GPU rival, took a $119 million charge for shipping defective chips but returned to non-GAAP profitability. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Fat Cisco Shines In Telepresence

Yesterday, Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) reported its fourth straight quarter of revenue declines as the economy and low-cost competition took a toll on sales. However, the company did manage to beat analyst estimates. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

EMC, VMWare Holding Steady

A recent Gartner report said that IT spending is likely to fall 6% in 2009, compared to a previously forecast drop of 3.8%. Despite such reports, which paint a gloomy picture for all IT sectors, there are players such as EMC and VMWare that are continuing to hold steady. >>>

Video Conferencing A Major Opportunity For Networking Players

Recently, online video beneficiaries Juniper and Polycom reported better-than-expected results as the market stabilized. However, Akamai reported a disappointing quarter due to the delayed impact of the economic downturn. >>>