Joseph Zucchero: Executive vice president, the Casey Group, Tampa
By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published May 12, 2003
Q. Your business, selling information technology outsourcing and consulting services, depends on corporate willingness to spend. How's it going?
Our business seems to mimic the stock market. When the market looks like it's gaining momentum and people are anticipating a comeback, there's interest. But as soon as the market goes down because of poor earnings or whatever, the corporate initiative is no more spending.
There doesn't seem to be any momentum in IT spending on the services side. It's very difficult to break into new clients. Project and strategy work has been put off. The one positive is that big companies like IBM recently posted increases in service revenue. It's a good sign when the leader's business starts increasing.
Q. What's the biggest obstacle to closing deals?
Most companies have cut back on capital expenditures. And low interest rates haven't turned that around. One thing that might change it is a signal that the economy is strengthening. When you see traditional increases in plant, machinery, real estate, the traditional drivers of the economy, it should stimulate IT spending. When people put a new factory online, they're smart enough to integrate it with the rest of their business.
Q. You work in both California and Florida. What's your take on Tampa Bay's tech community?
It's very fragmented, with lots of associations of small user groups and competing CIO (chief information officer) groups. In southern California, there are a couple of dominant groups driven by the universities. They hold huge symposiums, and while these meetings are not cheap, you see more communication. It's a real customer-vendor relationship here, whereas in California, Chicago and New York, it's more of a partnership thing.
