PROCTER & GAMBLE CO., Cincinnati, said it hoped to decide by the end of the year on a partner to handle purchasing, information technology and other business services in a cost-cutting measure that would be one of the biggest contracts of its type.
Corporate customers, they said, are focused on simplifying their purchases of information technology and the projects that are going ahead are to reduce costs and increase operating efficiency.
Microsoft attributed its reassessment to a slowdown in personal computer sales, a slight softening in corporate purchases of information technology and weaker-than-expected growth in demand for online advertising and its Internet service, MSN.
Easing the burden of excessive paperwork and lengthy bureaucratic approvals associated with the purchase of information technology and data management software can strengthen innovation in local governments interested in improving their transparency.
Information technology and telecommunications stocks declined slightly.
Emerging high-technology industries include information technology and telecommunications.
Information technology and telecom are colliding.
"This is fundamentally changing the way information technology is purchased and delivered," said Tom Kieffer, chief executive of Agiliti, based in Minneapolis.
It will offer courses in the creative industries, business management and marketing, accountancy and finance, computing and information technology, purchasing, supply and logistics, teacher training, social science and psychology, counseling, health, nursing and social care, and sport.
The index, which measures the intention of information technology purchasing executives to invest in new capital projects, rose 25percentt in the fourth quarter of 2003, compared with the third quarter.
