Midmarket still investing in IT, says IBM

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 07 July 2009 13:26

IT Industry - Strategy

It's interesting to note that the situation varies among industries. Less than a quarter of banking and insurance respondents said their budgets had been decreased, but that figure was over 40 percent for those in industrial products.

And the most common barrier to getting projects off the ground is cost, followed by lack of skills or the need to train the workforce, and an inability to implement given current resources and infrastructure.

There's another way of breaking down the results: roughly half (53 percent) of the companies are looking to IT to improve efficiency and cut costs, while the remainder want it to drive growth, business transformation, and improved customer relationships.

So what aspects of technology are top of mind at midsized organisations?

Here's the top ten according to IBM's survey:

Information management (75 percent)
Security management (72 percent)
IT infrastructure (72 percent)
Regulatory compliance (70 percent)
Financial management (68 percent)
Business continuity (66 percent)
Knowledge management (62 percent)
Customer dynamics (62 percent)
Business process management (60 percent)
Collaboration (60 percent)

"This study clearly shows that midsize companies, which we believe will be the engines that lead us back to economic growth, are being cautiously optimistic and proactive," said Dupaquier.