Tech industry hiring frenzy to boost PC sales
By siliconindia   |   Monday, 19 April 2010, 15:51 IST   |    2 Comments
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Tech industry hiring frenzy to boost PC sales
Bangalore: India's personal computer (PC) industry will see a strong sales boost this year. PC vendors and analysts see three triggers for sales boost: Brisk manpower addition, especially in the IT/ITeS sector, PC refresh cycle at enterprises and government-buying, particularly for e-governance projects across the country. The entire spectrum of the IT industry will benefit from the rising computer sales. More PC purchases translate into more purchases of network equipment, software licences and peripheral devices, besides sys-tem integration work for IT services players. Frenetic hiring in the IT industry, as well as in the broader economy, is expected to boost computer sales. National Association of Software and Services Companies, India's IT industry lobby, sees a staff addition of 1,50,000 this year. Diptarup Chakraborti, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner, sees a 'definite correlation' between hiring and PC sales. "Industries have been hiring in the last two quarters. The IT industry always hires today for tomorrow. So, they will buy PCs today to ready the infrastructure for tomorrow," he said. While the workforce in the advanced world suffered sharp job cuts in 2008 and 2009, the cuts were not too deep in India's IT/ITeS sector. However, the hiring now under way is quite huge. According to Deepak Kumar, Market Researcher and Consultant in the information and communication technology sector, this will necessitate a scale-up in PC purchases. "With recovery now a certainty, enterprises are in a scale-up mode. They will certainly need to do the refreshes as well as buy for the new hires," Kumar said. Large IT companies may be spending Rs 700-800 per sq ft on computers and software, said the Chief Financial Officer of a top IT company. According to V Balakrishnan, CFO, Infosys Technologies, the number of new PC purchases could be around 75 percent of staff additions in an IT company. This is because onsite employees use the client's resources. Large enterprises usually upgrade their PC infrastructure once in three-four years. However, last year, companies unsure of the business climate postponed purchases. The pent-up demand due to the delayed refresh is expected to pump up the volumes this year.

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