Summary
Small firms are the main drivers in promoting economic growth, increasing employment, and maintaining social stability. Rising uncertainties in the global economic outlook have compelled small enterprises to look out for disruptive technologies such as cloud computing and business intelligence, to enable them to stay competitive and increase their revenues. Additionally, technologies such as mobility, cloud computing, enterprise applications, and business intelligence offer benefits such as reduced operational costs, improved productivity, and the better streamlining of operations to ensure sustainable growth.
Key Findings
- Kables survey shows that small enterprises are optimistic about investing in various ICT domains in 2015. Enterprises are allocating a major proportion of their ICT budgets to core domains such as hardware, software, and IT services.
- Investments in hardware are primarily driven by the growing use of clients and networking equipment, while investments in software are driven by the need to streamline and optimize processes, to run operations better, and to reduce costs and replace paper processes.
- Small enterprises are paying significant attention to enhancing customer satisfaction in the long run in order to gain a competitive advantage.
Synopsis
ICT investment trends in small enterprises presents the findings from a survey of 1,203 small enterprises regarding their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) investment trends. The survey investigates how small enterprises currently allocate their ICT budgets across the core areas of enterprise ICT expenditure: hardware, software, IT services, communications, and consulting.
The report illustrates the core technologies these enterprises are investing in, including business intelligence, mobility, and cloud computing. Understand the approach adopted by small enterprises to purchase technology and get a better insight into ICT vendors and services providers when pitching their solutions to small enterprises.
In particular, it provides an in-depth analysis of the following:
- How ICT budgets are set to change in 2015 in terms of their overall size
- Allocation across the core elements of IT spend, including hardware, software, services, communications, and consulting
- Distribution of ICT money in areas such as the networks, applications, service desk, and data centers
- Which ICT functions small enterprises are interested in outsourcing
- Small enterprises investment priorities based on their budget allocations across core technology categories such as business intelligence, mobility, and cloud computing
- Factors that are influencing small enterprises investments in each technology category
- How small enterprises IT budgets are currently allocated across various segments within a technology category
- Small enterprises distribution of their ICT budget across various segments within a technology category
- Vendor satisfaction ratings for various core and advanced technology categories
- Insight into small enterprises preferred buying approaches
- Business and IT objectives that small enterprises are looking to achieve through their IT investment strategies
- Factors that are influencing small enterprises decisions to select an ICT provider
Reasons To Buy
- Understand how the small enterprises ICT landscape is set to change in 2015 to prioritize your target market
- Comprehend how ICT money are being allocated by small enterprises in specific geographies and size bands to improve your market penetration
- Make effective business decisions by recognizing the opportunities within each of the core areas of ICT spend (hardware, software, IT services, telecommunications, and consulting)
- Realign your sales initiatives by understanding the current strategic objectives of small enterprises
- Enhance your market segmentation with the included, detailed breakdown of opportunities within selected technology categories (business intelligence, mobility, and cloud computing)
- Prioritize your focus areas by understanding which factors are influencing small enterprises decisions when selecting an ICT provider
- Understand the changes in customers priorities and identify the business and IT objectives that small enterprises are looking to achieve through their ICT investment strategies
Table Of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Trends in ICT budgets
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Survey demographics
1.3 ICT budget changes
1.4 ICT budget allocation by core technology area
1.4.1 Hardware budget breakdown
1.4.2 Software budget breakdown
1.4.3 Third party IT services expenditure
1.4.4 Cloud computing budget
1.5 ICT budget allocation by function
1.6 Outsourced IT functions
2 ICT investment priorities and vendor satisfaction
2.1 Introduction
2.1.1 Business intelligence
2.1.2 Mobility
2.1.3 Cloud computing
3 ICT procurement trends
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Business objectives and IT objectives influencing IT investment strategy
3.3 ICT provider selection
4 Summary
4.1 Small enterprises are embracing technology to stay competitive, automate their operations, and expand their reach
5 Appendix
5.1 Definitions
5.2 Further reading
5.3 Contact the authors
List Of Tables
List Of Figures
Figure 1: Small enterprises - enterprise ICT survey geographic breakdown
Figure 2: Small enterprises - enterprise ICT survey industry breakdown
Figure 3: Recent and expected ICT budget changes among small enterprises
Figure 4: Small enterprises' (external) ICT budget allocation, 2014 and 2015
Figure 5: Small enterprises' average hardware budget allocation
Figure 6: Average allocation of software budgets in small enterprises market
Figure 7: Small enterprises' average IT services budget allocation
Figure 8: Small enterprises' average cloud computing budget allocation by technology
Figure 9: Small enterprises' average cloud computing budget allocation by implementation type
Figure 10: Small enterprises' ICT budget allocation by function, 2014 and 2015
Figure 11: Outsourced IT functions - Small enterprises' current and future outsourcing priorities
Figure 12: Business intelligence - Small enterprises' current and future investment priorities
Figure 13: Business intellligence - selected primary provider and vendor satisfaction among small enterprises
Figure 14: Mobility - Small enterprises' current and future investment priorities
Figure 15: Mobility - selected primary provider and vendor satisfaction among small enterprises
Figure 16: Cloud computing - Small enterprises' current and future investment priorities
Figure 17: Cloud computing - selected primary provider and vendor satisfaction among small enterprises
Figure 18: Business objectives and IT objectives which influence small enterprises' IT investment strategy
Figure 19: Factors influencing small enterprises' decision to choose an ICT provider
