CompTIA Research

CompTIA Research Study: Revealing the Latest Trends in IT Spending and Priorities among Small- and Mid-Size Businesses

About the study

What is the current state of IT spending and business climate among SMBs, as well as their future plans in the next twelve months? What are key SMB purchasing decision criteria with respect to high level wants and needs from their IT solution providers? What is the current level of satisfaction with current IT providers and what are ways of improving these satisfaction levels? In order to answer these questions, CompTIA conducted a comprehensive study on the IT spending and priorities of SMBs in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. A total of 724 qualified IT and Telecommunications decision-makers participated in the study.

Sample of Key Findings

On a global basis, the SMB market is generally quite healthy and growing at a faster rate than larger enterprises. Companies in industrialized markets expect their businesses to grow at approximately 13% over the next 12 months, and in some newly industrialized and emerging regions the rates are even higher. Three out of every four SMBs are planning on hiring new employees, and about one-third are planning on new locations. The SMB market skews significantly toward the smaller firms in terms of sheer number of businesses, with more than 80% of all SMBs in the 1-19 employees size band. Although these companies are smaller in terms of staff size, their combined revenues and spending are the critical foundation of most economies.

From an Information Technology (IT) perspective, SMBs continue to deploy a variety of solutions. SMBs typically move through three distinct waves of technology adoption. Wave 1 consists primarily of establishing the basic computing infrastructure, such as PCs, productivity applications, and printers. As they move into Wave 2, SMBs begin to extend their businesses via networking and internet connectivity. Finally, Wave 3 is characterized by SMBs fully leveraging their networks by deploying solutions such as wide area networks, virtual private networks, and IP-based services.

In markets such as the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., spending on IT by SMBs is expected to increase at nearly double digits over the next 12 months. The majority of SMBs in these developed nations are in Waves 2 and 3 of IT adoption, therefore, most of the opportunity for basic computing infrastructure such as PCs and printers will be centered on upgrade cycles. In the areas of advanced software applications, SMBs are seeking solutions to extend their enterprises to customers and business partners. Solutions including customer relationship management software and web services represent some of the leading planned application deployments. Security and storage also represent areas of significant opportunity, as SMBs recognize and try to mitigate the risks that go hand in hand with open networks. For SMBs entering Wave 3, technologies such as server virtualization and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) are top of mind as they seek ways to realize the most return out of their network investments.

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