01732 759725 RESEARCH 34 New research by Sharp shows a clear and concerning IT knowledge gap amongst smaller firms in the UK SMEs lack IT knowledge Making the most of investments Across Europe, making the most of investments in IT over the last few years is ranked as highly by European small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as finding new talent, however the challenges for those in the UK is focused more on the rising costs of doing business. When it comes to making the most of investments already made, IT professionals admit a lack of integration with other systems (25 per cent) and overly complicated software and systems (25 per cent) are barriers to getting the best return. Managers’ lack of knowledge (23 per cent) was also cited as a critical factor in preventing businesses leveraging investments effectively. Expert advice Colin Blumenthal, Vice President, IT Services at Sharp Europe, said: “In a challenging economic climate, smaller businesses are focusing on efficiency, productivity, profitability, and getting the right value from investments they are about to or have already made. But with technology continuously evolving and becoming more complex, sometimes that isn’t as easy as it might sound. Given this, expert advice should always be sought to ensure the right decisions are being made, particularly as SMEs across different industries have specific needs.” Unfortunately, expert advice on IT investments is found lacking by UK businesses. Almost half believe they were poorly advised from the beginning and didn’t have good enough ongoing advice and support. In addition, just over a quarter of businesses believe that a lack of employee understanding (26 per cent) holds them back. Less than a quarter (23 per cent) currently have a person responsible for IT internally. Addressing IT knowledge gaps Blumenthal said that Sharp supports customers in addressing IT knowledge gaps. “That is one of the key benefits of working with an external technology partner like us. Our approach to IT and technology is all about making [technology] easy and simplifying it for decision-makers, as well as identifying and understanding client needs that then allows us to deliver business enabling solutions.” He continued: “We also offer our clients training – so they can upskill their employees and internal IT resource on key topics such as IT security, of which our recent research found that less than half of IT professionals in SMEs felt knowledgeable enough on. “We’re IT specialists for a reason, from full scale migration to the cloud, to power apps, we help address IT knowledge gaps by providing insight, end-to-end support, and training, ensuring the technology that our clients have investment in, is adopted and the maximum value extracted.” The research is part of a pan-European survey of 5,770 professionals in SMEs, responsible for purchasing IT, on confidence in capabilities and barriers to investment over the next 12 months. www.sharp.co.uk Despite an increase in investment in IT post-pandemic, a majority of IT professionals in UK small and medium sized businesses admit they aren’t familiar enough with key IT areas such as cloud or IT security to make the right decisions for their business.. Less than half of those surveyed felt knowledgeable enough on the benefits of cloud (40 per cent) and IT security (44 per cent). Lacking the right knowledge Beyond cloud and IT security, businesses also admit to lacking the right knowledge in critical areas such as network limitations (66 per cent), specifications of IT hardware (64 per cent), software licenses (63 per cent) and Office 365 opportunities (63 per cent). The research found that almost one third of firms believe lack of technology integration and complexity of systems means they don’t make the most of their investment in IT. Just over 20 per cent are relying solely on internal IT resource, highlighting that this approach can result in a lack of independent and expert advice when it comes to investments and just under half of businesses believe they were poorly advised from the beginning when it came to their IT investment.
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