Most European businesses face a tech deficit

A tech deficit currently affects 72% of European businesses and leads to a gap between what businesses need to achieve and what their infrastructure can support.

When compared with their European counterparts, UK companies are amongst the most prepared with 64% citing they face a moderate or significant tech deficit. According to Colt Technology Services research findings, the best prepared country is Spain, with 62% of companies facing a tech deficit, compared with 81% of German companies.

The majority of European organizations highlight that their infrastructure foundations need to evolve over the next two years to meet future business needs – including voice and communications (88%), data centre infrastructure (90%) and network infrastructure (85%).

Organisations are under constant pressure to balance the needs of their customer against the commercial realities of running a successful business. UK companies cite the need to deliver high levels of customer satisfaction (60%) whilst at the same time delivering profitability (65%) and revenue (56%) to the business as the top three measurements of business performance and success. These crucial business areas will suffer significantly if the tech deficit is not addressed.

Data highlights include:

  • A third think their current infrastructure is future ready and scalable to support the peaks, troughs and complexity of demand over the next two years, compared to one in four in Europe (26%)
  • Half state they are not currently ready, but have a strategy in place to address this, in line with the European average (51%)
  • 14% of organizations say they have no strategy in place, whereas the European average is one in five (20%)
  • Half of European organisations believe they have only a year before they will be unable to manage and mitigate risk for the business. The UK is the least affected country, with 39% of businesses expecting to fall short on this area, compared with 56% in Switzerland.

The research indicates that simplification and automation is the preferred route for infrastructure evolution, with 60% of European respondents looking for increased simplicity in their infrastructure. The use of a service based model is expected to become increasingly important in the next two years, with Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Software-as-as-Service, and data centre colocation expected to grow by 52%, 55% and 33% respectively.

The research also points to a move towards more consolidation of suppliers and strategic partners, with 63% of respondents stating they see benefit in a single supplier model that provides a range of different IT service and infrastructure options.

Key trends for European businesses:

  • Service based delivery will help change how businesses think about owning infrastructure, moving away from buying technology and embracing a service based model.
  • Flexibility will drive business models and commercial arrangements. Businesses will seek out suppliers that enable them to manage change.
  • Simplification of processes will empower the IT department: moving to the cloud, consolidating suppliers and identifying strategic partners.
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