UK Businesses to Spend More on IT for Better Workforce Optimization

Businesses in the U.K. plan to spend more money on IT over the next 12 months, according to a survey conducted by NETGEAR.

About 35 percent of smaller businesses intend to make more strategic IT investments and spend more money on new technology as compared to 2010.

As per an article by Max Clarke from freshbusinessthinking.com, adoption of technology has increased to build a mobile staff and create a flexible workplace. Specifically, the respondents want to buy smartphones and tablets for their business.

About 28 percent of those surveyed said purchasing portable devices is their main priority.For this survey, NETGEAR researched 300 business owners and IT managers in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Findings from the research also indicate that businesses are already experiencing problems with their existing networks.

About 35 of the respondents experienced slowness while using the internet and about a third experience lengthy delays when starting their email. However, only 30 percent of those polled view upgrading their network’s capacity to deal with the demand of these additional devices as a high priority.“Business owners and IT managers clearly see the benefits of building mobility into their workforce through portable devices. However, the majority do not realise the importance of having a modern network to support these modern devices,” said Laurent Masia, product line manager of Managed Infrastructure at NETGEAR.

“Businesses will be spending thousands of pounds if they invest in tablets and smartphones but these devices need a fast and reliable network to work properly. If they cannot connect to the internet or access business applications they are practically useless.”

Read a related article at TMCnet “NETGEAR Introduces New Mobility and Converged Networking Solutions for Growing Businesses.”