The IDC study, Western Europe Vertical Markets IT Spending Forecast, 2016–2020, shows that the IT market was off to a promising start at the beginning of 2016 after a relatively strong 2015, and most countries in the region seemed to be finally leaving the economic downturn behind.However, a sudden slowdown in economic activity and IT investments started to materialize in the second quarter, and this worsened during the rest of the year.

The market is still expected to generate moderate growth in 2016, then scale back to flat or slightly negative growth in 2017, only slowly improving to 2020. Nevertheless, 3rd Platform and innovative technologies are expected to grow at much stronger rates compared with traditional IT solutions, and they will soon reach critical mass to positively disrupt overall IT spending trends. Manufacturing, consumer, and financial services remain the biggest spenders, while professional services and retail will lead growth in the whole forecast period.

"Innovative use of IT can represent a strong competitive advantage, and some companies are moving in this direction. Indeed, there are a lot of new trends that are reshaping the IT agenda across vertical markets. Think of how 3D printing can change a manufacturer's business, or how Internet of Things/IoT projects can impact insurers' businesses," said Angela Vacca, research manager, IDC European Industry Solutions, Customer Insights and Analysis. "Even if the bulk of IT spending still goes into more traditional IT areas, we see a number of new, industry-specific digital transformation [DX] projects, and vendors must be aware of how things are changing."