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Intelligent Automation Tools — Intelligent Platforms Changing the Automation Landscape
IT Security Staffing Catching Up with Existential Threats
QA Staffing and the Changing Nature of Software Development
Finance Management Suites Evolve to Support Complex Business Decisions
IT Spending as a Percentage of Revenue by Industry
IT Spending in the Insurance Industry
IT Spending in the Retail Industry
Featured Research
Intelligent Automation Tools 2020 RadarView
November, 2020
The robotic process automation industry has shifted toward hyperautomation, which leverages AI, ML, and NLP to enable end-to-end automation. Tool vendors have evolved their solutions into enterprise-class suites covering the entire automation lifecycle by bundling process discovery, workflow orchestration, prediction and recommendation, document processing, analytics, and unified dashboards. Software vendors such as SAP, Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle have also entered the AI-led automation marketplace by embedding automation in their™ applications and platforms, organically or inorganically. (51 pp.)[Research Byte]
IT Security Staffing Ratios
November, 2020
IT security staffing has finally increased to match increases in IT spending. In this report, we present the five-year trend in IT security staffing and provide benchmarks for understanding IT security staff head count: as a percentage of the IT staff and as a percentage of the Network and Communications Group. We also analyze IT security staffing in terms of the number of applications, users, and network devices. In addition, our analysis includes the influence of organization size and sector on staffing requirements. We conclude with recommendations for optimizing IT security staffing. (21 pp., 9 fig.)[Research Byte]
IT Quality Assurance Staffing Ratios
October, 2020
Staffing levels for IT quality assurance personnel are in a state of flux for several reasons, including the new ways in which software is being developed and the varying needs of industry sectors. In this report, we first evaluate recent changes in IT QA staffing levels. We then provide three benchmarks by organization size and by sector: QA staff as a percentage of the IT staff, QA staff as a percentage of the Application Group, and applications per QA staff member. We conclude with recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the QA function within the IT organization.(20 pp., 7 fig.)[Research Byte]
Financial Management Suites 2020 RadarView
October, 2020
The importance of financial management applications is rising, as the finance function is evolving to support complex business decisions and to generate accurate insights. Modularization and better integration with third-party applications are expanding financial management (FM) suite capabilities. This is accelerating adoption across organizations of all sizes. Leading vendors are investing OCR, NLP, ML, and RPA to automate financial management processes and build an intelligent finance function. These and other trends are explored in Avasant’s new Financial Management Suites 2020 RadarView report.[Research Byte]
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Region Digital Services 2020-21 RadarView
October, 2020
In the face of dramatic challenges in 2020, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has witnessed growth in non-oil sectors. This is a direct result of structural reforms that are conducive to economic diversification. The six Arabian Peninsula governments instituted policies and initiatives—such as data security laws, permission of 100% foreign ownership, exemptions from corporate and income taxes, and granting permanent residency permits to foreign investors—that have resulted in global businesses entering the GCC region in recent years. As a result, local enterprises facing global disruptions are embracing digital transformation to stay competitive. These and other trends are explored in Avasant's new GCC Region Digital Services 2020-2021 RadarView report. (118 pp.)[Research Byte]
Revisiting the Impact of COVID-19 on IT Organizations in 2020
October, 2020
Our latest survey shows that that a K-shaped recovery of IT spending has begun. Nearly an equal number of companies have increased their IT budgets in response to the pandemic as those that decreased them, with slightly more actually increasing. This report outlines how the pandemic is affecting IT operational budgets, IT capital budgets, IT staff head counts, compensation, outsourcing, budgets for new projects, and the use of the public cloud. It also shows trends in working from home. We also report how long IT leaders expect it will take for their budgets to recover to prerecession levels. We also forecast expected IT spending cuts by industry for all of 2020, along with our recommendations for IT leaders in managing their spending through the crisis. (26 pp., 12 fig.)[Research Byte]
SD-WAN Managed Services 2020 RadarView
October, 2020
With constantly changing cloud environments, SD-WAN is transforming enterprises and allowing them to evolve quickly. With COVID-19, most companies have adopted work-from-home policies, which is causing a shift in approach to more hybrid connections, more cloud enablers, and thriving analytics and artificial intelligence. SD-WAN and secure access solution edge (SASE) will bring many differences in the upcoming year, with all solutions in one secure platform. These and other trends are covered in Avasant’s SD-WAN Managed Services 2020 RadarView report. (93 pp.)[Research Byte]
IT Management Best Practices 2020/2021
October, 2020
The best-run IT organizations not only focus their process improvement efforts on those of other departments, they also seek to optimize their own IT management processes internally. In this study, we examine the growth and maturity of 34 IT management practices which we have grouped into five major categories: IT governance practices, IT financial management practices, IT operational management practices, IT security and risk management practices, and application development practices. (196 pp., 178 figs.)[Full Report Description and Sample Pages]
[Research Byte]
Vendor Discount Report (October 2020)
October, 2020
The largest and best discounts are often only offered to the vendors’ best customers, and buyers may find it difficult to determine whether the discount offered is typical or whether a better deal can be negotiated. The Vendor Discounts Report is designed to give procurement personnel, lessors, lessees and departmental manager’s insight and guidance regarding current discount structures on a variety of categories of equipment in the marketplace. (11 pp., 10 fig.).SaaS Adoption Trends and Customer Experience
September, 2020
Software as a service is everywhere, and nearly all new software deployments are SaaS. It is time to stop thinking of SaaS as a growing technology and think of it as a mature incumbent. This report quantifies the current investment trends for SaaS and identifies the benefits driving companies to expand their SaaS implementations. It also identifies which of a wide variety of SaaS applications are driving adoption and assesses adoption and investment trends by organization size. Finally, we examine the ROI and TCO experience of adopters and conclude with practical advice for those considering deployment of SaaS solutions. (22 pp., 11 fig.)[Research Byte]
Digital Workplace Services 2020 RadarView
September, 2020
With the future of work changing, the digital workplace has grown in importance. Responding to COVID-19, tens of thousands of companies around the world have adopted work-from-home policies. The trend toward telecommuting was already under way before the coronavirus hit, but the trend skyrocketed as the virus spread. In the wake of COVID-19, enterprises are now figuring out their digital workplace strategies and how to adapt to a hybrid workplace. As organizational priorities change, the digital workplace is getting reshaped, and enterprises are tending to move away from monolithic workplace environments. These and other trends are covered in Avasant’s new Digital Workplace Services 2020 RadarView report. (93 pp.)[Research Byte]
Server Support Staffing Ratios
September, 2020
In state-of-the-art data centers—whether operated on-premises or by managed service providers—demand for server support administrators has declined since 2012. How many server support staff members does an organization need today? To answer that question, we provide four key benchmarks: server support staff as a percentage of the IT staff, users per server support staff member, physical servers per server support staff member, and OS instances per server support staff member. We provide these metrics for small, midsize, and large organizations. We also assess how industry sector can influence server support staffing metrics. We conclude with recommendations for improving server support productivity. (22 pp., 10 fig.)[Research Byte]
Data Management Staffing Ratios
September, 2020
The data explosion is finally making an impact on data management staffing. Through the middle of the decade, data management staffing plateaued despite the fact that organizations of all sizes were making more use of data. However, data management head count recently has increased significantly. In this study, we use four benchmarks to assess data management staffing levels: data management staff as a percentage of the IT staff, data management staff as a percentage of the Application Group, users per data management staff member, and applications per data management staff member. (21 pp., 10 fig.)[Research Byte]
Retail & CPG Digital Services 2020-2021 RadarView
August, 2020
In one of the most visible outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic and recession, more than 8,000 brick-and-mortar stores have closed. However, online sales have skyrocketed. As home-bound customers shop for essential items online, many retailers are stocking up their online marketplaces.. Leading consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies have reported more than 30% revenue growth in e-commerce sales by increasing investments in direct-to-customer operating models and by leveraging digital technologies. As a result, e-commerce sales now account for more than 10% of their overall revenue. Additionally, with curbside pick-up and “buy online pick-up in store” (BOPIS) gaining traction, we expect more growth in online sales.[Research Byte]
IT Outsourcing Statistics 2020/2021
August, 2020
This major study profiles outsourcing activity for 11 IT functions: application development, application management, data center operations, database administration, desktop support, disaster recovery services, help desk services, IT security, network operations, system implementation/integration and web/e-commerce systems. For each IT function, we measure the frequency and level of outsourcing. We also look at the current plans of IT organizations to increase or decrease the amount of work they outsource. We examine the customer experience to assess whether organizations are successfully lowering costs or improving service through outsourcing. Finally, we show the outsourcing frequency by sector for each function. (113 pp., 97 fig.)Full Report Description
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IaaS Adoption Trends and Customer Experience
July, 2020
IT organizations are growing their use of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for a variety of purposes, including internal production systems, systems development and testing, and disaster recovery. We expect that growth to continue, though some companies are reticent to adopt IaaS. This report quantifies the current adoption and investment trends for IaaS, as well as the benefits driving adoption and the buyer concerns holding it back. We assess these trends by organization size, sector, and region. We also look at the return on investment and total cost of ownership experience of those who have adopted IaaS and conclude with practical advice for IT leaders seeking to gain support for IaaS investments. (18 pp., 12 fig)[Research Byte]
IT Salary Report 2020
December, 2019
The Computer Economics IT Salary Report 2020 provides total compensation for 77 IT job functions for more than 400 U.S. metro areas and 20 industry sectors. The executive summary also provides our forecast for pay raises and hiring in 2020 and includes job descriptions for each job function. The salary tables are provided as a downloadable Microsoft Excel workbook, with total salaries reported at the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentiles. (37 pp., 8 figs., plus salary tables)[Research Byte]
[Full Description and Free Executive Summary]
IT Spending Benchmarks for Very Small Organizations 2019/2020
November, 2019
For the first time, Computer Economics has conducted a study on the IT spending habits of “very small” organizations in the U.S. and Canada, a population that is beneath the size threshold for our annual IT spending and staffing benchmark study. This report examines high-level IT spending, staffing metrics and trends for such very small IT organizations. We further break down the high-level metrics by three sectors: manufacturing, retail and wholesale distribution; professional and technical services; and financial services. To qualify as very small for the purposes of this study, a company has to be either under $50 million in revenue or under $1 million in IT operational spending. (36 pp., 17 fig.)[Research Byte]