New report shows businesses to increase tech spending in 2022
Photo by fauxels from Pexels
A new report from SWZD has unveiled some of the growing trends within the business world. The report itself specifically looks at the state of IT in 2022 and how businesses are approaching it. As it turns out, the news is promising. Expenditure is up from last year – and the findings indicate that more and more businesses are looking to invest in technology.
Below, you’ll find some of the key points from the report and what they mean for businesses in 2022.
IT budgets are increasing
SWZD discovered that 53% of companies plan to increase tech spending this year. 35% say they will keep the budgets the same year on year, meaning only a minuscule percentage of businesses are actively trying to decrease their spending.
This shows a clear trend in companies understanding the importance of technology. In fact, further data from the survey has backed this up and provided an insight into why IT budgets are increasing – more on that in just a moment.
It was also discovered that businesses seem oddly optimistic about 2022 on the whole. 61% expect revenues to increase, with only 8% predicting a decrease from 2021.
Cloud & managed services are growing year on year
Since the pandemic, companies have spent more money on cloud and managed services. Cloud services relate to anything from cloud storage to Microsoft Teams. It’s the latter that is perhaps the biggest reason spending has increased. Companies started working from home, meaning employees had to communicate remotely. Implementing things like Microsoft Teams has allowed businesses to stay connected.
Furthermore, we are starting to see new additions to cloud software like this. You’ve now got features such as Microsoft Teams phone for businesses to use. Now, what is Microsoft Teams phone? Effectively, it gives businesses a way of making calls through this cloud platform. Companies are investing in technology like this to set themselves up as remote businesses. The more cloud services in place, the easier it is to run a company from home while staying connected to employees and clients.
Managed services refer to businesses outsourcing IT support services to other companies. Again, it shows a growing trend that companies want to shift away from on-site operations. Instead of employing a team to look after the IT side of things, companies want to outsource to save money and improve convenience.
Investments in futuristic tech solutions are on the rise
While cloud-based software and managed IT services are responsible for some of the budget increases, futuristic technology is also a culprit. The report found that organisations are looking to invest more money in future technologies to aid their business and move it forwards.
Specifically, there are plenty of businesses that want to spend more money on new and innovative security solutions. Predominately, these security solutions will tackle cybercrime – which has become a huge problem in modern society. In 2020/2021, 86% of UK businesses experienced a cyber attack at some point. This was an increase of 3.7% from the previous year, showing that cybercrime is on the rise.
Investments in new tech solutions to bolster cybersecurity is seen as the best way to decrease these numbers. Relying on new and innovative solutions can help companies protect themselves from the hidden threats out there.
Tech buying challenges continue to exist
The final point that’s worth discussing is that there will still be challenges for businesses when buying technology. This has been the case since 2020 and the world is still playing catch up. The SWZD survey found that 40% of businesses are expecting shortages, price increases, shipping delays and logistical issues.
All of these things are caused by the pandemic, which is still a major problem across the world. Even in regions that aren’t as badly hit anymore, there’s a backlog of issues to get through, meaning parts shortages and delays are to be expected.
This is why many businesses are focusing more on software spending over hardware investments. Buying new cloud software solutions won’t mean that a company has to wait for deliveries or new parts. Again, this is partially why so many businesses are putting cloud and managed services at the top of their agenda.
Overall, this report was very interesting in showing us the key trends relating to businesses and their technology expenditure. If you would like to read the full report and see all of its findings, you can do so here. It is a lengthy report that goes into great detail on all the main points and includes some other interesting information on trends within the IT industry.
