01732 759725 04 NEWS Job satisfaction linked to MSP use The UK’s small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly turning to MSPs to help them address IT challenges, such as tool sprawl, external threats and security, even if they have been slower to adopt managed services than peers in the US, according to new research from JumpCloud. The company’s latest SME IT Trends report, Flexibility and Ingenuity: What’s Powering Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise IT Management in 2023, shows that 57% of IT admins in UK SMEs currently use MSPs to some extent, compared to 79% in the US and a global average of 69%. However, the report suggests that UK SMEs are catching up, with 30% of UK respondents considering working with an MSP, compared to 22% globally. Interestingly, the percentage point difference between MSP take-up in the UK and in the US is almost identical to that between job satisfaction in the two countries. In the UK, 48% of IT admins said they were happier in their roles this year than they were last year, compared to 71% in the US. Half of UK respondents that are not currently employing MSPs say they prefer to handle IT themselves, even though 53% of UK IT admins that do use MSPs cite increased effectiveness in managing IT as the biggest benefit. More than four in 10 UK respondents (43%) say they have concerns about how MSP manage security. Security is the top challenge for IT admins in the UK, cited by 47%, followed by device management (43%), both of which have become more complex due to remote working and BYOD trends – 61% of UK IT admins report using their own devices to access work-related IT resources and tasks and 53% estimate that 10-30% of their organisation’s employees do too. On a positive note, 70% of UK admins agree or strongly agree that remote workers are better at following security best practices now than they were last year. Tool sprawl remains a problem. While 76% of UK IT admins would prefer to use a single solution or tool for managing IT, 48% use 3-7 tools/applications and 38% use 8 or more. Commenting on the findings, Denis Dorval, VP International (EMEA & APAC) for JumpCloud, said: “UK admins are less satisfied than their global counterparts, even though they are working less overtime and are less likely to report feeling overwhelmed. This implies that it is the nature, not the volume, of work that is getting them down. Adoption of MSPs in the UK is also less mature than in other regions, meaning UK-based admins are bearing responsibility for a greater proportion of routine tasks, in-house. This may be contributing to job dissatisfaction; it isn’t surprising that 30% of UK respondents are considering engaging an MSP.” https://www.jumpcloud.com/ ······ Partner growth In 2023, 73% of IT spending will have been partner delivered, according to an estimate by Canalys for TD SYNNEX’s second-annual Direction of Technology Report. At 91.5%, cybersecurity is the technology that is most often partner-delivered. The survey of more than 550 technology resellers in 60 countries also highlights the rapid uptake of AI, with the number of partners offering AI/ML solutions up 625% in the last year. Overall, 77% of channel partners have increased their revenue this year, with 50% more survey respondents identifying as managed service providers (MSPs) than last year. www.tdsynnex.com/dot ······ Jobs at risk Almost two thirds (63%) of IT workers and 44% of office workers are worried that Generative AI will take their job in five years. More than half (56%) of IT workers believe AI benefits employers more than employees (source: Ivanti, 2023 Report: New Imperatives for Digital Employee Experience). ······ AI making workers happier Two thirds (65%) of UK execs surveyed by ABBYY attribute rising employee happiness to AI – with 52% noting that more staff are leaving the office on time. Nearly half (47%) of IT decision-makers say they have seen an increase in staff retention levels since introducing AI, with 38% citing reductions in stress and improved work-life balance as well. Other benefits of AI include faster delivery of products to customers (55%) and improvements in employee efficiency (53%) and productivity (50%). Almost NEWS continued... AI TRIGGERS TECH ANXIETY Almost every business leader (94%) surveyed by global digital transformation consultancy Kin + Carta admits to ‘tech anxiety’, driven by the accelerating pace of technological change in areas such as cyber security, AI and machine learning. Specific areas of concern pinpointed in the 2024 Leadership Priorities in Tech report include the speed of technological change (35%), the internal skills gap (29%) and being able to access the right talent (28%). Three-quarters (75%) of leaders in £800m+ turnover organisations believe that further investment in digital transformation initiatives is necessary within the next 12 months to combat this anxiety. More than half (58%) plan to spend more in the coming year compared to previous years. Richard Neish, Global Chief Strategy Officer at Kin + Carta, said: “Overall, it appears that tech anxiety among leadership is primarily triggered by factors and technologies with the potential to significantly disrupt established ways of working. We’ve all seen reports about the huge potential impact of AI, while previously we have seen cloud, mobile and indeed the birth of the world wide web completely alter the way businesses operate. “There’s no doubt that technology is moving incredibly quickly. But concerns such as data trust and the internal skills gap can be managed, as long as businesses invest in the right areas.” www.kinandcarta.com Direction of Technology 2023: TD SYNNEX Ecosystem Report
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