IDC CANADA MARKS INNOVATION AS TOP PRIORITY FOR IT INDUSTRY IN 2006

January 17, 2006

TORONTO, Canada, January 17, 2006 – - IDC Canada's Managing Director Vito Mabrucco predicts that innovation will be a top priority for Canadian organizations in 2006.

"Buying more technology without having an innovative plan on how it will create business advantage is not the answer," Mr. Mabrucco said during IDC's annual PREDICITONS web cast.

"In fact, that has been our problem of late, as customers have to buy more technology to keep their existing operations going, and therefore see it as a cost and not an advantage. Unless we help them find ways to advantage their business or their organization, we are just tools and utility. And that is where we are criticized for not being important."

Among IDC Canada's other PREDICTIONS for 2006:

• The Canadian ICT industry will continue to grow in 2006 at a rate of 3-4%.
• Multi-core servers will encourage organizations to rethink their purchasing criteria, and question how they architect their IT data centres. As a result, technologies such as virtualization will gain momentum in 2006. Virtualization breaks the link between the hardware and the common requirement that applications run on dedicated servers. Consolidation benefits are often dramatic.
• In 2006 the market can expect new products and strategies that address the need for greater return on investment and resource utilization. These products will increase efficiency and automation, leading to lower management costs.
• IDC expects customer-relationship management and mobility will continue to gain traction in the small and medium business (SMB) market.
• The fastest growing SMB markets (1-499 employees) according to IDC Canada's market model are Retail (3% through 2010), Banking and Insurance which are both growing at a 2.7% rate.
• Creation of an Electronic Health Record and Regionalization are key healthcare trends while patient safety and balanced budgets lead the business priorities of Canadian hospitals. Hospitals will prioritize infrastructure investments in PC's, Servers, Storage and Networking Equipment in 2006, although insufficient funding, weak IT execution, and poor IT/business alignment will continue to hamper adoption of IT in Canadian hospitals.
• Wireless communications will become the largest telecom market segment, passing local land-line services for the first time, IDC predicts. The company says this sector will generate almost 30 per cent of total telecom revenue in 2006. Driving wireless growth will be short-messaging services (SMS) and multimedia messaging services (MMS), and will include mobile television delivered using Internet protocol technology.
• The consumer-home market in Canada will grow by $569-million this year, mostly from residential wireless and Internet services, especially in new trends such as blogging, podcasting and on-line music-sharing.
• The concept of the Digital Home will give way to Digital Lifestyle, mostly as a result of the increasing popularity of wireless-equipped notebook computers, mobile devices, gaming hand-held computers, digital cameras, satellite radio, and portable media players, which will shift the market's focus out of the home

IDC Canada's PREDICTIONS06 is designed to identify and highlight opportunities and the choices facing the IT industry in the year ahead. The predictions draw upon existing IDC research and are vetted through an iterative review process involving analysts from IDC Canada and around the globe.

For a copy of this presentation, or to arrange an interview with Mr. Vito Mabrucco, please contact:

Stephen Symonds
IDC Canada
(416)673-2260
ssymonds@idccanada.com

About IDC Canada
IDC is the foremost global market intelligence and advisory firm in the information technology and telecommunications industries. IDC Canada forecasts and provides keen insight on Canadian, in addition to worldwide, IT markets and technology trends. Using a combination of rigorous primary research, in-depth analysis, and client interaction, IDC forecasts worldwide markets and trends to deliver dependable service and client advice.
More than 700 analysts in 43 countries provide global research with local content. IDC's customers comprise the world's leading IT suppliers, IT organizations, eBusiness companies and the financial community. Additional information can be found at www.idc.ca.

IDC is a division of IDG, the world's leading IT media, research and exposition company.

Contact

For more information please contact:

Stephen Symonds
Marketing Communications Coordinator
IDC Canada
(416)673-2260
ssymonds@idccanada.com