IT adds value to UK economy
The development of software has become an investment rather than a cost to the UK economy.
The first official measurement of the value of in-house software development has shown an addition of £8.3bn to the UK economy.
The Office of National Statistics showed a 0.6 per cent increase in 2006 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that can be attributed to the long-term economic potential of software developed by IT departments.
The figures have arisen as a result of measuring bespoke applications as an investment instead of a cost – previously only packaged software was recorded this way.
“Proper IT systems should always be viewed as an investment rather than a cost,” comments Derrick Cameron from business IT specialist Eximium. “Our clients tell us that a return on investment can be rapidly achieved. There really is no other way to look at software development – it can be one of the best investments a company makes.”
Professor of Economics at Queen Mary College, Jonathan Haskel, says the new calculations could have a knock-on effect for the economy. “If there is more capacity in the economy resulting from greater investment than previously thought, the Bank of England can run the economy at a faster rate without worrying about inflation”, he says.
This is the first time that the added value to the economy that IT development represents has been officially acknowledged within Government statistics.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Business Advice, IT Solutions, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
