ICT budget and staffing trends in the UK Enterprise ICT investment plans to 2013

Monday 11 February 2013, Amsterdam

Despite the uncertain economic conditions across Europe and the UK government’s large scale austerity measures to reduce public sector ICT spend, a vast majority of the respondents from Kable’s survey have hinted that their ICT budgets will remain at the same level or witness an increase in 2013, as compared to 2012. About 38% of UK enterprises have expressed their intentions to raise their ICT budgets slightly (by 1-5%) in 2013, while 10% have plans to increase them significantly (more than 6%) during the same period (see graph below).

Analyzing the survey data by the size of the respondent’s organization, reveals that there is likely to be a positive shift in ICT investment behaviour amongst the UK’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in 2013. Kable finds that 48% of the survey respondents in this category intend to increase their ICT budgets in 2013 (an 18 percentage point increase from 2012). Meanwhile, for large enterprises the statistics remain largely similar, with 47% of the respondents in this category indicating hikes in their ICT budgets in 2013 (as compared to 44% in 2012).

Kable finds that the proportion of respondents who intend to increase their ICT budgets is expected to jump from 33% in 2012 to 48% in 2013. The survey results also indicate that the proportion of respondents who have reduced their ICT budgets in 2012 (25%) is likely to decline by a percentage point (to 24%) in 2013. It is also noteworthy that only 28% of UK enterprises have plans to retain their ICT budgets at the same levels in 2013 (compared to 43% in 2012), giving an impression that enterprises are slowly but steadily opening up to additional investments in ICT. However, further ICT budget cuts from the public sector, which is currently the largest procurer of ICT products and services in the UK, could have a negative impact on the technology and communications market.