A new global survey of 2,112 business and IT decision makers, conducted by KS&R on behalf of IBM, finds that midmarket organizations with 100 to 1,000 employees are putting more emphasis on customer management and productivity as they enter 2011.
While cost containment is still a major priority, the survey suggests that midmarket organizations are starting to recover from the economic shellshock of 2010. As a result, many are thinking once again about investing in applications that will help expand their customer base while making internal operations more efficient.
As a consequence, a significant majority report that they expect to increase IT spending in 2011 by a healthy margin.
Click through for results from a survey conducted by IBM on current and upcoming business and IT priorities.
While cost control remains important, an emphasis on customer management emerges.
Customer service and increased productivity are tightly linked.
IT infrastructure leads, but is closely followed by enhancing a range of business applications.
Security management is followed closely by CRM and business intelligence.
Most intend to focus these applications on internal operations.
Cloud computing is closely associated with cost reduction.
The majority are seeing an increase over 2010.
Cost is still the top issue of the day.
