Spending on IT has gone up at smaller companies.
Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are ensuring they can compete with their larger competitors by upping their spending on IT to improve their operations.
According to a new study by Spiceworks, small companies are recruiting four per cent fewer IT staff, but have increased their spending in this sector by 19 per cent in the past six months.
The increase was especially large in SMEs that only employed less than 250 people, suggesting they are aware of the benefits of outsourcing their necessary tasks when it comes to freeing up time for workers.
They may also be making use of offsite electronic document storage to keep hold of their important records while not having them cluttering up their small offices and other premises.
It was also found that the ‘bring your own device’ trend may be affecting SMEs, as 42 per cent of those surveyed said they were planning to buy tablet computers soon.
Although software still made up the biggest proportion of IT spending, IT services and cloud hosting accounted for 19 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
Indeed, 61 per cent of SMEs used at least one type of cloud-based services, whether it was a digital mailroom or something else to boost convenience.
However, it is interesting to note that companies with 20 employees or less spent double the amount on cloud services than SMEs that employed 20 to 1,000 people.
"The results of our most recent survey highlight optimism among SME IT departments and a focus on the tools and technologies IT departments need to support their growing businesses," commented Spiceworks’ Kathryn Pribish.
It comes after the 2013 Global Enterprise Survey by CommScope recently discovered that businesses around the world had named cloud computing as one of the biggest game-changers to emerge in IT over the past few years.
It can be a real boost for SMEs to have cloud-based services, as they free up computer systems and people for more important tasks – for more information on how they could benefit your company, just get in touch with the experts at Dajon Data Management.