COMPUTER INTELLIGENCE INFOCORP RECAPS 1995 AND PREDICTS 1996 TRENDS

WORLDWIDE TECHNOLOGY UPGRADE PLANS AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH

Trend Toward Decentralized Technology Purchasing Seen Continuing

LA JOLLA, Calif., Jan. 30, 1996 Recent research from Computer Intelligence
InfoCorp (CII), prepared jointly with Computer Intelligence Europe (CIE)
and CONTEXT, a London-based research firm, indicates that 40 percent of
companies plan to upgrade their hardware and software in 1996, a record
rate. The study also investigated similarities and differences between US
and European technology purchasing behavior in 1995.

The findings emerged from interviews conducted with 500 sites evenly
selected across France, the UK, Germany, and the US, and the information
was presented by CII president Robert G. Brown at the 1995 EuroChannels
Conference held at Disneyland Paris.

CII's survey asked whether companies were intending to upgrade their PC
hardware and software technology in 1996, and an unprecedented 40 percent
of respondents stated that they already had upgrade plans. Productivity
improvement applications were by far the strongest motivator, mentioned by
60 percent of those planning technology upgrades. Communications/workgroup
and departmental applications were a distant second choice at 30 percent.

The survey also investigated the technology purchasing process and
uncovered a global decline in centralization: in 1995, 50 percent of
respondents reported that one IT professional or a small group of IT
professionals made the buying decisions, down from 70 percent in 1994.

Increasingly, the trend appears to be for IT, functional managers, and
Finance all to participate actively, with decisions by IT committees on
the rise. The importance of IT's role is increasing, CII suggests, because
of the increasing importance of information technology in business, while
the stronger decision-making role of functional managers indicates the
growing influence of end users. Finance obviously plays a dominant role in
setting budgets.

CII categorized respondent organizations into three groups. "Leaders" were
defined as having at least 30 percent Pentium PCs installed or using
Windows 95 or Macintosh Power PCs. "In Betweens" had fewer than 30 percent
Pentiums or had Macintoshes other than Power PC. All other sites fell into
the "Slow-to-Go" category.

CII's research determined that the UK and France have overall technology
adoption profiles that are roughly equivalent, while Germany is farther
advanced, approaching US levels. However, the differences are greater
among the "Slow to Go" respondents than the "Leaders," suggesting that the
proportion of early adopters of technology tends to be stable from country
to country.

With regard to technology resellers, CII found that the less experience
respondents claimed, the more influence resellers had. Novices had the
highest expectations of service and support from their resellers;
expectations fell off sharply as users became able to control their own
destinies.

The CII research reveals interesting differences among countries in the use
and purchase of technology. For example, desktop computer penetration is
deepest in the US: of all PCs consumed in 1995, 79 percent were desktop
units, as opposed to portables or servers. In France, 73 percent were
desktops; in the UK, 70 percent; and in Germany, 68 percent were
desktops.

The survey participants who stated that they were not planning significant
upgrades were further queried about how vendors might motivate them to
upgrade their hardware or software. The results varied considerably from
country to country. For software, price was a much stronger factor in the
UK, France, and the US than in Germany, where productivity improvement was
most important. For hardware, price was again the strongest factor for the
UK, France, and the US. Productivity was a negligible concern in France
and the US, but relatively important in Germany and the UK.

The sites surveyed included end-users from the top 10 percent of
private-sector PC-using sites taken from CII's Installation Database, and
vendors from CONTEXT's reseller database. CII's Installation Database
contains sales and marketing information on a variety of computer and
communications hardware, software and services installed and planned at
more than 250,000 business sites in the US, Canada and Europe. CII's
researchers looked at current and planned buying activity, the buying
process, and end-users expectations of vendors.

With headquarters in London, CONTEXT provides its customers with volume
sales information for printers and PCs in the United Kingdom, France and
Germany, with coverage of other major European countries to follow in the
near future. In addition, CONTEXT provides pricing information on PCs,
printers, software, workstations, midrange systems, plotters, scanners and
networks across Europe.

Computer Intelligence InfoCorp, a Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, is the
leading source of fact-based information for the computer and
communications industries. CII's extensive research capabilities provide a
wide variety of products and services that help computer and
communications companies sell and market more effectively. All of the
company's products and services are based on proprietary information
databases built and maintained by CII specialists. Headquartered in La
Jolla, Computer Intelligence InfoCorp has offices in Cambridge, Mass.;
Farmington, Conn.; Mountain View, Calif.; and Europe. Samples of CII's
extensive market data and research results, timely commentary from
industry authorities and previews of upcoming technology events are
available on the company's Home Page on the World Wide Web
(http://www.compint.com).
 
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