Print.IT Reseller - issue 78

BULLETIN Investing in tech According to research from Brother, UK firms are investing in digital infrastructure to boost their productivity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings, taken from interviews with 500 IT decision-makers, show that more than eight in ten companies have ramped-up efforts to boost productivity since March, with more than half saying it is now vital to deliver cost savings (59%) and higher profits (54%) for their businesses. Firms are ramping-up digital investment to tackle their productivity challenges, with IT budgets set to rise by an average of 13% over the next 12 months. Respondents said that legacy working practices such as excessive meetings (35%) and poor IT infrastructure (33%) are the biggest barriers businesses face. Modern hardware, such as printers and tablets, (98%), collaboration software, such as project management platforms and video conferencing, (98%), and remote working tools, such as cloud-based technologies, (96%), top IT decision-makers’ lists for technology that will deliver the greatest productivity gains. The research analysed the potential time savings and value to employers when a number of typically manual IT practices were replaced with more efficient alternatives. For example, scanning straight to a secure network location, rather than a PC and then saving the file, to streamline and secure document management. Brother says that an average business of 250 employees could stand to save nearly 52,000 hours of workers’ time a year – worth an estimated £776,000 – just by implementing simple, cost-effective updates across their IT operations. www.brother.co.uk Cybersecurity awareness Based on a global survey of 937 IT pros, the 2020 Netwrix IT Trends report: Reshaped Reality , reveals the change in IT priorities for organisations for the rest of the year due to the coronavirus outbreak. While data security remained the top priority for the UK organisations, the importance of raising cybersecurity awareness among employees increased nearly twice from 39% before the coronavirus crisis to 69% after it. Other UK findings include: organisations are more focused on data privacy now than before the crisis as 60% prioritised this option compared to 30% pre-pandemic; the number of firms that consider digital transformation as their top priority has significantly decreased from 57% before the pandemic to 20% now and the importance of cloud migration has decreased from 52% before the pandemic to 22% now. www.netwrix.com Stuck in development According to new research commissioned by Kaspersky, 95% of heads of innovations in enterprises globally admit that their projects often fail before they are launched. Many of these innovations don’t even make it past development stage (36%). A lack of cooperation with IT security departments also increases the likelihood that a project will never be released. Cybersecurity was not listed among the top reasons why projects fail. Nonetheless, there’s a shared belief (74% agree) that by not including a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) early in the process, enterprises are increasing the likelihood that their innovation will not be successful. This could be due to an inability to adapt projects to strict cybersecurity rules, with more than half (54%) believing that IT security policy in their company stifles innovation. www.kaspersky.com UK firms now looking to AI The coronavirus pandemic is set to trigger greater investment into artificial intelligence from UK businesses, new research by Fountech.ai has revealed. Since the start of the pandemic, 55% of UK businesses have begun exploring how AI could improve the product or service they deliver. This figure is highest among small (61%) and medium- sized (66%) businesses. Fountech.ai’s research also found that 45% of businesses are looking to implement one or more technologies that use AI in the next 12 months. www.Fountech.ai PRINTITRESELLER.UK 7 01732 75972 5 6810 We can buy your unused toners As a Managed Print Service provider, we understand how important it is to deliver the best value and performance to your customers. After all, your business is all about helping your customers to reduce costs, optimise efficiency and automate processes. Our dedicated team at The Jolly Savage work closely with many Managed Print Service businesses to handle their customers’ surplus toner stock; if you have unused toners that you are interested in selling, contact us today for a no obligation quote. Are you a Managed Print Service provider? 01462 60 50 50 · [email protected] · www.thejollysavage.co.uk