More than 70% of distributors and resellers more confident about prospects for this year than last

The European IT market looks set for a good year with sales through indirect channels showing significant growth. Business confidence is high with more than 70 per cent of major European channel organisations more confident about their business prospects this year and more than two thirds predicting increases in Revenues, Orders and Profits. These are amongst the findings of this year's European Technology Survey (ETech 2007) the latest market intelligence report from IT Europa which is published today.

The survey, the most comprehensive ever conducted of Europe's major IT Channels, was designed to examine the factors driving customer purchase decisions and market growth and to provide insight into the channel's view of technology and financial trends. Spanning 35 European countries, the report also provides a unique insight into the channel's perception of major vendors in terms of product and service quality, and the effectiveness of their marketing and channel programmes. The spectrum of vendors assessed spans IT Hardware & Software, Telecoms and Peripherals and includes: Acer, Alcatel, Avaya, Canon, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Epson, Fujitsu Siemens, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nortel, Oracle, SAP, Siemens, Sony, Sun and Symantec.

A number of major brands such as Cisco, Intel, IBM, Microsoft and HP feature strongly in all areas, but the survey reveals some interesting variations by region and by sector, both in terms of vendor perceptions and business confidence. ISVs and Systems Integrators appear the most bullish sectors with more than 50 per cent expecting substantial increases in profits. From a regional perspective, the prospects for Eastern Europe look particularly strong with 77.7 per cent of respondents predicting significant growth in sales.

"Overall the ETech 2007 survey shows a maturing industry in pretty good health," commented Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa. "It also underlines the strength of the software and services sectors and the importance of brands, with most of the leading vendors achieving strong rankings. There are though some marked contrasts in perception by geography and type of channel and some interesting variations in market drivers and financial factors which both vendors and service providers would do well to take account of in rolling out their marketing programmes."

The European Technology Survey (ETech 2007) is the most comprehensive survey ever conducted of Europe's major IT Channels. It is based on a poll of 19,401 directors of the leading 8,000 channel organisations in Europe spanning 35 countries. The ETech 2007 report is available from IT Europa at a cost of £1,950.