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Shamik Paul

Bangalore, Sept 10 Things may begin to look up for the Indian IT services companies early next year as analysts see a change in customer sentiment towards IT spending.

Customers had held back their IT spends because they were yet to assess the impact of the slowdown in the US economy. Analysts said there is a change in sentiment and now the mood is one of going ahead with deals. This change is largely because the clients have a clearer idea of how much they can spend. The deals are expected to be signed in the fourth-quarter of fiscal 2009.

The months of November and December is the deal-making period, and the orders would happen in the fourth-quarter, said Mr Sudin Apte, Senior Analyst and Country Head, India, Forrester Research. He said the mood is positive because there is clarity now. The clients know how much money they have and how much they want to spend, he added.

Everest Group, too, said it has seen early signs of a positive bias. The sentiment is changing, and it is better than the first-half of calendar year 2008, it added.

Compared with the first six months of 2008 when deals were the last thing on the companies’ mind, they see lot of energy now, said Mr Nikhil Rajpal, Principal Analyst, Everest Group and Mr Jimit Arora, Research Director, Everest Research Institute.

The sentiment was positive, but one would have to wait to see how things turn out. It takes a little time to move from sentiment to reality, they said.

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