Distinguished SaaS, IT management and customer support company GoTo ended the month of March with a bang in the form of its IT Priorities: 2023 Report and IT industry-centric findings therein. Commissioned by GoTo (and conducted by growth-focused market research company Frost & Sullivan), the report looked at the global trends of decision-makers in IT (and – key point – at companies with less than 1,000 total employees).
So, what’s shaping priorities in IT? What initiatives can build the basis for SMB growth in 2023?
Here’s the gist of what we gleaned from the report:
A birds’-eye view: Eighty-three percent of the surveyed SMB decision-makers in IT are focused on consolidating vendors. That said, 92% view reducing the burden on IT as a top priority. Also, in terms of the mode of work, 50% are currently supporting hybrid habits. (Editor’s note: That last one puzzled me, given the avalanche-esque shift to hybrid and remote work since 2020; I thought the percentage might be closer to, say, 60% or 65% for this sample size, especially for SMBs really looking to boost productivity. It’s interesting.)
A closer look: Respondents have tussled with needs for cost-savings, choosing specific software and better IT support tools, customer prioritization and overall satisfaction, and whether or not to involve MSPs or CSPs.
- 41% plan to switch vendors entirely (rather than methodical consolidation) due to pressingly increased needs for cost-savings. SMBs are on the hunt for service providers with one-stop-shop type of convenient solutions.
- 47% of SMBs with one to 50 employees are increasing spending on technology dedicated to refining authentic customer experiences and satisfaction. (Could this number be higher?)
- Saving on IT spend is big for SMBs with 50-250 employees (and even those with 250-1,000) as well, but so were assuring secure and well-managed environments and migrating to cloud services, where possible.
- Forty-eight percent (opposed to 2022’s 35%) still feel burdened by software-related IT dilemmas. And when selecting the tools through which said dilemmas can be resolved, 65% of organizations have had difficulty choosing the digital upgrades through which IT workloads can be lightened, which makes sense given saturation in the markets since the pandemic.
- Year-over-year results show a 10% decrease in the number of businesses that have established official rules on the number of days employees needs to be in the office; to me, this indicates employers granting real flexibility, but also the fact that there’s still no gold standard for how the majority operate. (The long story short? They’re figuring it all out.)
“As economic uncertainty, scrutinized budgets, and overburdened resources continue to be the norm,” said a representative from GoTo, “heads of IT are faced with setting the right goals and objectives to maximize investments and streamline operations. This tells us that it’s more important than ever to secure the support you need sooner, as opposed to later. Businesses need to stay connected as optimally as possible internally with their teams’ efforts, as well as externally with the challenges customers face.”
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
