Type of Article: MacTech Blog

According to a new IT spending forecast report published by IDC Health Insights (www.idc.com), IT investment by the Western European healthcare sector is forecast to grow from US$13.2 billion in 2013 to $14.6 billion in 2018.

Growth will be driven especially by software (4.6%), while investments in IT services will grow more slowly (1.6%). Hardware spending is expected to decrease over the 2017 horizon (-1.0%), according to the IDC research group. The Western European healthcare provider market continues to show moderate IT spending growth.

Market intelligence firm ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) finds the penetration of embedded telematics in new vehicles will increase from 13.4% in 2014 to 52% in 2020.

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) forecasts that global SIM card shipments will reach 5.2 billion units in 2014, marking a revitalizing 5.32% increase from 2013. LTE, NFC, and M2M have successfully paved their way into the industry and are considered the trends for the next few years.

A new survey from the IDC research group (www.idc.com) revealed that the most important characteristic to ensure satisfaction in communicating with a company is the ease of use/simplicity of process.

According to the survey, on average, 65% of respondents said they were satisfied with the communication options available. The 18-24 and 25-34 year age groups were the least satisfied, both with 62% satisfaction with the breadth of channel options compared to 65% overall. Seventy-one percent of respondents said that communicating with a company using their preferred channel is very important.

Business should focus on people and purpose, not just products and profits in the 21st century according to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited’s (Deloitte Global) fourth annual Millennial Survey. This and other findings from the survey suggest businesses, particularly in developed markets, will need to make significant changes to attract and retain the future workforce.