Is there a techie in the house?

Trade

New research by IDC has shown up some disturbing trends in companies’ attitudes towards in-house tech support.

IDC’s annual survey of IT Trends and Expenditure in Ireland has tended to focus mainly on the expenditure plans of organisations, with respondents being asked what hardware, software and services they plan to invest in, what technologies they are interested in and how much they expect to spend. This year the  survey included a question on IT staff to gauge attitudes in this area.

• Less than 19% of very small organisations have in-house IT support.

• Only 35% of small firms retain full-time techies

• Only 13% of medium sized outfits employ full-time support staff.

• In the finance sector, IT represents 8 out of 100 employees.

•  In manufacturing, tech personnel represent less than 1 per 100 staff

• Biggest challenges is keeping pace with IT changes.

• Most without IT staff more likely to name Dell as primary supplier.

• Most respondents felt Dell had enhanced its reputation in the past year.

• Most of those without IT staff turn to small locally based organisations.

• More than half of outfits without IT staff see IT as operationally fundamental.

The person responsible for IT in smaller organisations is often the owner/manager, someone from the finance function, or whoever is considered by the owner to be the most technically minded. In many organisations, there is no full-time IT person whether qualified or not.

Of the very small organisations (between 1 and 49 staff) only 19% had any full-time IT staff. More surprising, however, was that in the small organisations (between 50 and 99 employees) only 35% had any full-time IT staff. Of greatest concern to IDC was that 13% of medium sized organisations, those with 100-500 employees, had no full-time IT staff. The average number of IT personnel at each organisations ranged from 8 for every 100 employees in the finance sector down to 0.7 per 100 employees in manufacturing organisations.

When comparing the views of those with IT staff to those without, some of the findings were not unexpected. The biggest IT challenge named by respondents in recent years has been “keeping up with IT”. This is clearly a far greater issue for organisations without IT staff. A total of 14% overall cited this as their key challenge, but only 8% in organisations with IT staff did so and 21% in those without.

There was little variation between the two groups in the vendors they named as their primary supplier. Organisations without IT staff were slightly more likely to name Dell as their primary supplier (31%) than those without (27%). In similar fashion, HP was named by a few more organisations with IT staff (15%) than those without (12%). Lower down the list, however, most organisations without IT staff named small locally based organisations as their primary suppliers. When asked which vendor they felt had enhanced its reputation in the past year, the majority of organisations without IT staff plumped for Dell. Indeed, 41% of them who named any company in this category opted for Dell.

Article based on findings from IDC’s Trends and Expenditure in Ireland, 2006 edition.

For details contact Keith Gaffney on 01 207 4285.

Read More: Trends & Strategies