Study: Businesses in Western Europe to feel the economy's effect in IT budgets

A new report from IDC revealed that organizations spread across Western Europe will be experiencing a tough economy just like the rest of the world. In anticipation of this dilemma, many businesses are preparing to have a stagnant IT budget. However, some companies will still increase their spending on information technology to deliver innovative services and gain competitive advantages.

While 17 percent of survey respondents said they believe their IT budgets to decline, a whopping 40 percent said they plan to increase their IT spending. Still, only 25 percent of these organizations are planning on increasing their IT investments by more than 5 percent, according to the report.

"Western European organizations are huddling toward the middle in their IT budgets for 2012; their plans are tending more toward stasis," said report author Douglas Hayward. "This will be a conservative year in which discretionary spend will be held to a minimum for most organizations."

Companies may still be investing in media gateways, however, as the market for these products are expected to continue growing, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan. This is because these devices support a number of technologies, including VoIP, unified communications and SIP trunking services.