Tag: IT Budgets

EMEA companies put IT budgets to good use

Posted on August 23, 2013 by - News

poundsResearch from CA Technologies has revealed that companies in EMEA are increasingly switching their IT budgets from dull, routine maintenance towards designing projects that enable revenue-generating services. The CA Technologies Channel Index 2013 found that EMEA partners spend 34 percent of their time helping consumers with such projects rather than maintenance. However, only 18 percent of the IT spend in Britain was devoted to new revenue-generating services.

“IT projects are being driven by the need for businesses to innovate for growth, while creating new ways to serve customers. And today’s IT director is expected to be the driver of these efforts,” said Sean McCarry, Senior Director, CA Technologies. “Our solutions and partner programmes equip partners with the tools they need to help their customers fuel innovation and drive growth. The Channel Index 2013 shows just how far IT departments and channel partners have come on this journey.”

Chris Gabriel, VP of Solutions Management at Logicalis Group, pointed out that the shift results in less operational waste, allowing IT departments to increase their participation in productive, revenue-generating fields.

“CIOs now see their role as Chief Innovation Officer, and they have recognised that their business value isn’t in managing IT infrastructure, but delivering new IT enabled business experiences,” he said.

The index revealed that 83 percent of surveyed partners in EMEA expect to see increased spending on enterprise mobility over the next year and almost all recognise that the rapid adoption of mobility creates opportunities to help grow their business. Among UK partners, this figure rose to 95 percent.

Cloud computing was identified by CA Technologies partners as the second priority for their customers’ IT investments. Nearly two thirds of the partners surveyed predicted an increase in cloud computing spending over the next year. In the UK, a significant 81 percent of partners expected increases.

IT budgets stay the same for SMEs

Posted on April 3, 2013 by - News

Ishut-up-and-take-my-moneyT software budgets have increased or remained the same for most SMEs over the past five years, research from SolarWinds has found.

In its Time and Budget Spent on IT study, the provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, pointed out that despite this, more than three quarters of the 500 companies asked said that on average, 12 per cent of software purchases still go unused.

Just over two thirds of the SMEs asked said they had an IT manager who is principally responsible for addressing IT issues, although in over 30 percent of organisations, the business owner or manager fulfils this role.

Almost one third of respondents said that IT was not their main responsibility within their organization, yet despite this, they admitted to spending up to 30 percent of their time managing IT issues.

Nearly all those asked – 87 percent – also grassed up their IT mates claiming that
that up to half of purchased IT software was not utilised. Of this group, 28 per cent said that up to a fifth of software purchased goes unused.

While budgets increased or remained the same in most industry sectors, companies in financial services and manufacturing were more likely to have reduced IT budgets the most in the last five years. And although IT spending is important to SMEs, budgets are small with one in five companies spending just £1,500 (~$2,000) on IT software each year.

More than a quarter of those in the UK who said that IT budgets had decreased or remained the same, stated that this had a detrimental impact on IT security and uptime. This was in comparison to Germany where less than ten percent felt that flat budgets had a negative impact on IT security and uptime.