Konica Minolta bizhub C280 Product Guide - Page 213

bizhub C360/C280/C220 Vertical Markets Additional Market Segment Highlights That You May Want to Consider Approaching • Information Technology Sector • Women Owned Businesses Information Technology More and more nothing gets attached to a business' network without IT being involved in the review and purchase process. Many times the budget for printing devices will come directly out of IT's budget. The good news is that IT spending continues to grow. According to Forrester Research, US overall spending on information technology will approach $840 billion in 2006 or 7% growth year over year. All business segments, from enterprise and small to medium business (SMB's) are increasing their IT spending with the SMB sector accounting for almost half of all IT spending nationwide. Virtually all IT purchases are tied to ROI and IT professionals are no longer just focused on the technology but are becoming increasingly savvy business people. They are beginning to make decisions not only on the technology itself but also on how that technology impacts the business. Important areas of consideration for IT professionals would be overall network and corporate information security and industry compliance measures which would vary greatly depending upon the vertical market. An example of those compliance concerns would be HIPAA compliance for the health care and insurance markets and Sarbanes-Oxley within public companies. Getting the message out to IT professionals; IT professionals find that information sharing between peers is very important, as is overall personal experience, speaking with colleagues, industry magazines and information from external consultants and vendors. Remember to approach IT professionals within the communication channel that they prefer. IT professionals are a highly "wired" group. They tend to be always online, and always accessing Email. IT professionals also tend not to like a lot of product hype. Bottom line specs, clear benefits and points that evidence ROI will win them over. White papers are also a big favorite within the IT community as are analyst research reports and product reviews. Web casts are also becoming an effective medium to approach the IT professional with a highly targeted message. 209