Product Synopsis

This report presents the findings from a survey of 1,071 small enterprises regarding their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) budgets and staff allocation. The survey investigates how small enterprises currently allocate their ICT budgets across the core areas of ICT spend, namely hardware, software, IT services, communications and consulting.

Introduction and Landscape

Why was the report written?

In order to provide a depth of insight into ICT vendors' and service providers' potential customers.

What is the current market landscape and what is changing?

Small enterprises are modernising their business operations by making investments in software solutions in order to improve productivity and remain competitive in their respective operating markets. Enterprises' software budgets are also allocated to software as a service (SaaS), as these enterprises are gradually increasing their adoption of on-demand software.

What are the key drivers behind recent market changes?

Small enterprises are gradually increasing their adoption of SaaS to reduce costs and their IT management burden.

What makes this report unique and essential to read?

Kable Global ICT Intelligence has invested significant resources in order to interview CIOs and IT managers about their IT Budgets. Very few IT analyst houses will have interviewed 1,070+ ICT decision makers in small enterprises in H2 2012.

Key Features and Benefits

Understand how ICT budgets are set to change in 2013 in terms of their overall size.

Appreciate how budgets are allocated across the core elements of ICT spend, including hardware, software, services, communications and consulting.

Learn how ICT money is being spent in areas such as the data centre, applications, IT management and the network.

Establish how IT staff are typically allocated within small enterprises.

Gain insight into with whom small enterprises plan to spend their ICT money.

Key Market Issues

Small enterprises are modernising their business operations by increasing their investments in technology. This is evident from Kable's survey which shows that small enterprises have increased their ICT investments in 2013 compared to 2012.

Small enterprises are investing in IT services to customise software solutions and integrate them with the existing processes, as well as to outsource elements of their ICT to third parties.

The survey shows that small enterprises have increased the proportion of their ICT budgets allocated to data centres by 1% in 2013, compared to 2012. Small enterprises are spending the highest proportion of their overall ICT budgets on data centres as they look to improve their ICT infrastructure and streamline their operations.

Kable's survey shows that small enterprises are allocating a large proportion of their ICT budgets to internal development and maintenance.

Kable expects the fixed voice spending of small enterprises to be gradually replaced by investments in converged voice and data networks, which currently constitute 16% of total telecoms budgets. Small enterprises are increasingly adopting converged voice and data networks as they help to generate cost savings for enterprises by reducing power consumption and minimising administration costs.

Key Highlights

Kable's survey shows that small enterprises allocated the highest portion of their ICT budgets to hardware followed by software in 2012 and 2013.

Kable's survey indicates that the largest proportion of technical staff is employed on the development and maintenance of the overall ICT infrastructure, including end user systems, data centres, networks, and communications.

A large proportion of the average hardware budget is currently being allocated to clients owing to the increasing demand for laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

Kable's survey shows that a sizeable portion of small enterprises' software budgets are allocated to software licences, with enterprises generating substantial demand for software covering the likes of enterprise applications and security solutions.

Kable's survey illustrates that small enterprises are allocating a large portion of their IT services budgets to application development and integration projects, which is driven by the rising demand for custom application development and their integration with existing applications.

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

1.5 ICT budget allocation by function

1.6 ICT spending by entity

1.7 IT staff distribution

2 Detailed ICT budget allocations

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Hardware budget breakdown

2.3 Software budget breakdowns

2.4 Third party IT services expenditure

2.5 Telecommunications budget

3 Summary

3.1 Small enterprises are making significant ICT investments to improve business operations and remain competitive

4 Appendix

4.1 Definitions

4.2 Further reading

4.3 Contact the authors

List of Tables

Table 1:Small enterprises' ICT survey geographic breakdown

Table 2: Small enterprises' ICT survey industry breakdown

Table 3: Recent and expected ICT budget changes among small enterprises

Table 4: Small enterprises' (external) ICT budget allocation, 2012 and 2013

Table 5: Small enterprises' ICT budget allocation by function, 2012 and 2013

Table 6: Small enterprises' (external) ICT budget allocation by entity, 2012 and 2013

Table 7: Average allocation of full-time IT staff members in small enterprises

Table 8: Small enterprises' average hardware budget allocation

Table 9: Average allocation of software budgets in small enterprises

Table 10: Small enterprises' average software budget allocation by technology

Table 11: Small enterprises' average IT services budget allocation

Table 12: Small enterprises' average IT consulting services budget allocation

Table 13: Small enterprises' average telecommunications budget allocation

List of Figures

Figure 1: Small enterprises' ICT survey geographic breakdown

Figure 2: Small enterprises' ICT survey industry breakdown

Figure 3: Recent and expected ICT budget changes among small enterprises

Figure 4: Small enterprises' (external) ICT budget allocation, 2012 and 2013

Figure 5: Small enterprises' ICT budget allocation by function, 2012 and 2013

Figure 6: Small enterprises' ICT budget allocation by entity, 2012 and 2013

Figure 7: Average allocation of full-time IT staff members in small enterprises

Figure 8: Small enterprises' average hardware budget allocation

Figure 9: Average allocation of software budgets in small enterprises

Figure 10: Small enterprises' average software budget allocation by technology

Figure 11: Small enterprises' average IT services budget allocation

Figure 12: Small enterprises' average IT consulting services budget allocation

Figure 13: Small enterprises' average telecommunications budget allocation