This IDC study focuses on the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector in Australia. It provides a map of where short- and long-term opportunities can be found and highlights purchasing patterns for products/services by market. The BFSI is the largest spender on ICT in Australia, contributing 21.3% of the total spending across the ICT market, including hardware, software, IT services, and telecommunications. Investments in ICT are expected to remain strong and IDC forecasts that BFSI companies will spend A$8,688 million on ICT in 2008. The majority of this spending (49.3%) will be on IT services.

"The U.S. subprime situation should serve as a warning to many Australian banks that have operated under a loose risk management regime. The pursuit of effective risk management will be unrelenting, even if other high-cost and high-priority projects come into picture. The threat of a slowdown has made IT investment committees become slightly more discerning of IT investments. Vendors should seriously focus on improved performance benchmarking and project governance, " says Melissa Martin, senior market analyst, IT Spending and Vertical Markets, IDC Australia.