500 interviews (250 in the UK and 250 in Germany) with IT decision makers from private sector SME organisations were carried out during March 2013, and here is what they had to say about time and budget concerns.

1. SolarWinds SME IT Survey
Conducted by Vanson Bourne
March 2013
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2. Demographics
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3. Demographics
» 500 interviews (250 in the UK and 250 in Germany) with IT
decision makers from private sector SME organisations
were carried out during March 2013, broken down in the
following way:
Sector
Size
2%
4%2% 1%
18%
5%
27% 6%
41%
6%
17%
10%
14% 15%
32%
IT & telecoms Manufacturing and production
6-50 employees
Retail, distribution and transport Business and professional services
51-100 employees
Construction and property Entertainment, media or leisure
101-250 employees
Financial Services Healthcare
Consumer services Agriculture
Energy, Oil/Gas & Utilities Other sector
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4. Time and budget spent on IT
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5. Responsibility for addressing IT issues
The majority of ITDMs based in UK Over half of ITDMs based on Germany said that the
said that the IT manager was IT manager was responsible, though a third said IT
responsible for addressing IT issues was responsibility of the business owner/manager
2% 8% 2%
26%
IT Manager
Business Owner/Manager
35% 56%
Employees
Finance
71%
Figure 1: Who is principally responsible for addressing Figure 2: Who is principally responsible for addressing
IT issues in your company? (UK sample) IT issues in your company? (Germany sample)
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6. IT budget
4%
10%
Budget increased
50% Budget remained the same 45% 51%
40% Budget decreased
Figure 20: Over the last five years has
Figure 19: Over the last five years has your IT budget increased, remained the
your IT budget increased, remained the same or decreased? (Germany sample)
same or decreased? (UK sample)
101-250 employees 56%
Smaller
Of those interviewed, half said their
organisations are
organisation’s IT budget had increased
less likely than 51-100 employees 57%
in the last five years. The picture was
medium sized
similar across UK and German
organisations to
organisations, though the UK was 6-50 employees 42%
have increased their
slightly more likely to have had a cut
IT budget in the last
in budget than Germany
five years Figure 21: “IT budget has increased in last five
years” – by size of organisation (Total sample)
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7. Effect of budget stagnation/decrease
German organisations whose IT budget has not
For UK organisations whose IT budget increased are much less likely than UK
has not increased, almost a third say that organisations to feel this has resulted in a
it has resulted in a detrimental effect detrimental effect upon their security or
upon their security and/or uptime uptime, though still over one in ten suffer from
this
32 %
26%
25%
19%
14 %
8%
7%
etrimental effect on IT security effect on uptime
Detrimental Detrimental effect on security AND uptime
Detrimental effect on security and/or uptime
2%
Detrimental effect onDetrimental Detrimental effectDetrimental AND uptime
IT security effect on uptime on security effect on security and/or
Figure 22: Has this had a detrimental effect Figure 23: Has this had a detrimental effect on
on your IT security/uptime? (Those in UK your IT security/uptime? (Those in Germany
whose budget has not increased n=125) whose budget has not increased n=122)
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8. Annual IT management software spend
The amount spent on IT management software
annually varies a great deal amongst
SMEs, though on average, organisations in
Germany tend to spend slightly more (14,902
Euros compared to 14,115 Euros for organisations
in the UK)
9%
1% 7% 2% 14%
20% 0-1,750 €
1,751-3,500 €
18% 20%
3,501-5,750 €
16%
12% 5,751-13,750 €
13,751-35,000 €
35,001-57,500 €
22% More than 57,500 € 16%
18% 23%
Figure 24: On average, how much do you spend Figure 25: On average, how much do you spend on
on IT management software annually? (UK sample) IT management software annually? (Germany sample)
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9. Unused IT software
Over four in five of organisations do not use all of the
software they buy, with organisations in Germany
slightly more likely than organisations in UK to be
using all of the software they have bought
5% 1%
12% 2%
11% 0% 9%
19%
1-10%
11-20% 18%
21-35%
28% 36-50%
43%
More than 50%
52%
Figure 41: Of the IT software you have Figure 42: Of the IT software you have
purchased, how much is not used? (UK sample) purchased, how much is not used? (Germany
sample)
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10. Respondent’s level of responsibility
13% In SME organisations, ITDMs sometimes
hold a variety of roles that means their
time is not purely dedicated to IT
IT is my main responsibility
IT is not my main responsibility
For almost nine out of ten
The larger the organisation, the
87% ITDMs based in UK
more likely ITDMs will hold a
interviewed, IT is their main
dedicated role in IT
responsibility
ITDMs in Germany are more
evenly split between those 93%
whose main responsibility is IT
and those whose main 75%
responsibility is elsewhere
54%
44% IT is my main responsibility
56% IT is not my main responsibility
6-50 employees 51-100 employees 101-250
employees
Figure 4: Is IT your main responsibility Figure 5: “IT is my main responsibility within my
within your organisation? (Germany sample) organisation” – by size of organisation (Total sample)
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11. Time spent managing IT issues
For those ITDMS whose main responsibility is not with
6% IT, the majority spend up to 30% of their time managing
IT issues. ITDMs based in Germany are only slightly more
1-15% of my time likely to be spending more of their time managing IT issues
33% 16-30% of my time
61% 31-50% of my time
24%
19%
15%
The smaller the
Figure 6: How much time do you spend
organisation, the
managing IT issues? (Those in UK for whom
IT is not their main responsibility n=33) less time non-IT
dedicated ITDMs
spend managing
IT issues
3% 6-50 employees
51-100 employees
101-250 employees
10%
1-15% of my time
Figure 8: Average time spent managing IT
16-30% of my time issues – by size of organisation (Those for whom
IT is not their main responsibility n=144)
32% 56% 31-50% of my time
51-75% of my time
So there is a significant proportion of ITDMs in SME
organisations who do not spend the majority of their time
managing IT issues – and the smaller the organisation, the
less time is spent on average. This makes choosing
Figure 7: How much time do you spend software management that can be relied upon particularly
managing IT issues? (Those in Germany for
whom IT is not their main responsibility n=111)
crucial for these organisations
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12. Thank You
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