New research commissioned by Sharp claims, SMEs will continue to invest in technology, despite serious concerns over rising costs.
The research surveyed 5,770 SMEs across Europe, including 502 in the UK, the most significant area of investment focused on IT security, hardware upgrades and server updates for the next 12 months.
Looking at investment levels, more than half UK SMEs plan to invest over £20,000 in IT this year, with five per cent expecting to invest north of £100,000.
Businesses said they intended to invest in new hardware (33 per cent) and server upgrades (28 per cent) throughout 2023. This is in addition to security and business continuity (34 per cent) which were also highlighted as key areas for investment, Sharp said.
Cloud migration was a lower priority for UK businesses with only 21 per cent interested. In Europe a third of firms planned to embark on cloud migration projects as they continue to deal with the challenges of hybrid working.
Sharp found that IT, education and awareness may be a specific challenge for UK SMEs to address, with implementing cyber essentials (25 per cent) and improving on business intelligence/MI (23 per cent) being amongst the top investment priorities.
SME tech investment was analysed against more general business challenges, with rising supply costs (39 per cent) and the cost of living in general (41 per cent) being of greatest concern in the UK in comparison to the rest of Europe.
Finding and retaining talent (23 per cent) and managing a diverse hybrid workforce (22 per cent) were also noted as key issues, slightly lower than the rest of Europe at 27 per cent for both.
Sharp Europe VP of IT services, Colin Blumenthal said that the past two years have reshaped the way businesses run, how their employees work, and expanded their threat landscape,” said
“The continued shift of workloads, processes and data to the cloud and on-premises infrastructures are enabling enterprises to create a value proposition that supports a new generation of workers and will be key to hiring and retaining the best talent possible.
“It’s encouraging to see that SMEs across Europe are realising the opportunities for growth through investment in IT.
“Those priority projects that will receive funding over the coming months will deliver greater efficiencies, better management of diverse hybrid workforces, and support in delivering improved IT security.”
