Facing harsh economic headwinds, cost-cutting initiatives are well underway across industries and concerns about economic uncertainty have executives bracing for a possible recession. The impact of this reaction to uncertainty is already being felt, with nearly 90% of IT leaders growing increasingly concerned with the potential impact on budgets and headcounts.
This comes at a time where, according to a recent study commissioned by Tangoe and orchestrated by leading independent technology market research firm Vanson Bourne, the pressure is mounting for IT teams to do more with less.
The survey features insights from 500 IT leaders at mid-sized to enterprise-level businesses ($500M-$50B+ in annual revenue) across the US and UK. The goal? To better understand the perspective of industry influencers on telecom, mobile, and cloud business processes and expense management amidst a changing, uncertain economic climate.
Other key findings of the study include:
- IT teams are being bogged down by manual processes: Respondents reported that 94% of their time in an average working week is dedicated to activities related to telecom, cloud, and mobility assets, including nearly a third of their week (29%) being allocated specifically to manual processes relating to these expenses and assets.
- Organizations feel stuck in the cycle of embedded internal processes: More than half of those surveyed report choosing to have at least some in-house management of their mobile, telecom and cloud software services (56%, 51%, and 51%, respectively), but almost nine in ten (88%) admit that their organization would benefit from greater support with managing such expenses. These percentages increase significantly for organizations that manage these expenses completely in-house (up to 88% for telecom, 82% for cloud, and 77% for mobile).
- There are no signs of slowing for IT teams: Budgets allocated to cloud, mobile and telecom are expected to increase by an average of 10-12% over the next couple of years, showing the continued growth and importance of software and services. Mobile device count (78%) and usage (83%) are also expected to increase; greater use comes with more management, making it even more important that organizations approach this in the right way.
However, from the anxiety and uncertainty, opportunity arises in our industry…
As businesses look to simplify, manage, and optimize their IT operations and spend, nearly all (99%) organizations openly recognize benefits from outsourcing telecom, cloud and mobile software and services. Furthermore, more than nine in 10 respondents that work with external vendors for mobile, cloud, and telecom management report seeing a clear, positive return on investment (95%, 92% and 91%, respectively).
The research uncovered that automation is where organizations will likely gravitate toward should the economy experience a recession in the near future. In fact, 85% of respondents reported that eliminating manual processes would allow IT teams to focus on more purposeful, business outcome-driven work. Therefore, expense and asset management solutions fueled by innovative frameworks optimized in security and a simplified inventory, such as Tangoe, will bring positive change for organizations feeling the pressures of doing more for less.
The first step to positive change is acknowledgment and recognition of pinch points currently faced, so it’s promising that surveyed IT leaders report these specifically.
Now, are you ready to take the second step and get an edge up? If so, contact us today to schedule a free demo with one of our experts.