Despite a projected upturn in IT spending in 2004, services marketing budgets remain tight and marketers have to justify every request for resources. In this context, industry benchmarks provide valuable support to organizations in planning, evaluating, and determining marketing spending totals and allocations.

This PowerPoint-style report provides detailed benchmark data on 2004 services marketing budgets, budget allocations, trends, and key challenges. The data come from ITSMA’s annual key metrics survey conducted from December 2003-January 2004.

The report highlights five critical issues:

• Services marketing budgets as a percentage of services revenue
• Services marketing budget allocations
• Differences in services marketing spending priorities between product-based firms and pure services firms
• Services growth rates and margin trends
• Top services marketing challenges

Key findings include the following:

• Services marketing budgets are decreasing as a percentage of services revenue as services revenue growth returns to double digits
• In absolute value, 2004 services marketing budgets are expected to either grow modestly or stay the same. In the United States, services marketing budget allocations have shifted toward offering development/management and sales support. European-based marketers allocate a higher percentage of the services marketing budget to communications.
• Marketers at pure services firms allocate their budgets quite differently than do services marketers at product-based firms
• Despite perceived pricing pressures, services margins are on the upswing

Survey data is based on the responses of 28 companies from across the IT industry. About half the study participants are pure IT services firms and the other half are product-based firms. Nearly half are firms with annual services revenue of more than $500 million.

This report is available free to companies that participated in the study.
If your company did participate, select “Member Price” on the order form, and then select option “C” for payment at the bottom of the form. Write “Participating Company” in the text box.
This report is available for sale at member and nonmember prices.
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