Overall Assessment

In 2008, the macroeconomic situation deteriorated considerably. Bechtle successfully bucked this trend, though the company was also affected by falling demand as the year progressed. The signals from the industry were varied. At Bechtle, the effects of the price pressure in the hardware market with stagnating or partly receding revenues were felt in the form of slackening growth dynamics in the IT e-commerce segment. In contrast, the persistently high growth rates in IT services had a positive effect on the IT system house & managed services segment. In this area, Bechtle did not yet experience any major reductions during the course of the year. In fact, the poor economic situation encouraged many user companies to optimise their IT infrastructure.

Apart from the macroeconomic development and the effects of the crisis in the financial markets, there were no other significant events outside the Bechtle Group in the past fiscal year that had a tangible impact on the business performance.