Small Businesses Plan Technology Spending for 2010

Small Businesses Plan Technology Spending for 2010

Small Business Speaks OutSpiceworks recently surveyed 1,250 small businesses on their IT spending habits and budget plans for technology refreshes, moving to the cloud, and whether they plan to hire new workers. Here’s what they said.

No Title

Budget Increases PlannedSpiceworks: Overall, year over year, those surveyed plan to increase IT spending by 9 percent.

No Title

Smaller Businesses Plan Bigger IncreasesSpiceworks: Companies with fewer than 20 employees plan the largest IT budget and staff increases among all SMBs.

No Title

Hardware Refresh ComingSpiceworks: Close to half of SMB IT budgets this year are allocated to hardware, mainly to replace legacy assets that have long overstayed their expiration dates.

No Title

Desktops Past Their PrimeSpiceworks: Nearly a quarter of desktops in an SMB IT network are more than 4 years old.

No Title

Most SMBs to Buy HardwareSpiceworks: 80 percent of IT pros in the SMB will buy some type of new hardware in 2010.

No Title

Cloud Computing PlansSpiceworks: 25 percent of participants said they plan to use cloud computing in the next six months.

No Title

Virtualization Investments ComingSpiceworks: 21 percent expect to invest in new virtualization software in 2010.

No Title

Workforce Sizes Likely SteadySpiceworks: 70 percent of SMB IT departments will make do with the same or fewer staff members in 2010.

No Title

CompTIA Looks at MidmarketAnother survey conducted by CompTIA among 400 midmarket companies showed the kinds of premiums these companies are willing to pay for new technologies.

No Title

Immediate Payback WantedCompTIA: 80 percent of SMBs are looking for solutions that "deliver immediate payback in terms of minimum disruption of business continuity and seamless integration with existing solutions.”

No Title

Proven ROI More ValuedCompTIA: 71 percent of SMBs are willing to pay more for new solutions with proven ROI

No Title

Server Virtualization in the WorksCompTIA: 37 percent of SMBs plan to adopt server virtualization in the next year

No Title

VOIP PlansCompTIA: 25 percent of SMBs plan on adopting VoIP in the coming year

No Title

Open Source Gains CompTIA: One-fifth of SMBs have plans to use open source software in the next 12 months

No Title

Managed Services Heats UpCompTIA: Small businesses on average report that they’ll increase the use of managed services by two- to threefold

No Title

Storage ConcernsCompTIA: Keeping up with storage demands is a top priority for SMBs, cited by 55 percent of them as their biggest concern

No Title

Microsoft Partner SurveyMicrosoft and ABI Research recently surveyed over 500 Small Business Specialist partners to discover their predictions for 2010 based on customer feedback

No Title

How Much?Microsoft: Respondents expect SMBs to increase spending this year by an average of 16 percent

No Title

How Many?Microsoft: 63 percent of respondents expect some sort of IT spending increase among customers in 2010

No Title

Hot TechnologiesMicrosoft: Key areas where spending will ramp up most quickly are virtualization, SaaS and CRM

No Title

Cloud PlanningMicrosoft: 19% of respondents believe their customers will use some sort of cloud-based systems in the coming year

No Title

Top Opportunities for 2010Microsoft: Upgrading OS, Backup, Hardware, Virtualization, Server Consolidation and Migration of Server OS are the lead areas of opportunity identified for 2010