Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD) surveyed more than 1,400 IT professionals from North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America to determine how recent economic events and inflation are impacting organizational plans to invest in technology in the upcoming year. The results of that research formed the 2023 State of IT report. Credit: iStock In this report, the news about technology investments was surprisingly upbeat. Despite national news about increased costs, economic uncertainty, and more reports of technology firm layoffs, respondents indicated that they were planning to spend more IT budget in 2023, not less. A notable 51% of respondents said that their IT budgets would increase, compared with 38% who said their budgets would remain the same, and only 6% who said their IT budgets would decrease. In examining where IT budgets would be spent, managed services was the only category that continued to increase in projections from 2021 through 2023. As a percentage of total IT spending, managed services increased from 16% to 18% in that two-year projection period. In that same projection period, hardware inched down from 31% to 30%; software decreased from 29% to 28%; and hosted/cloud-based services decreased from 24% to 23%. One contributing factor to managed services’ ongoing growth as a percentage of IT budgets is finding and keeping the right IT talent. The 2023 State of IT report stated that 59% of all respondents find it somewhat challenging or very challenging to find skilled IT talent. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe Given the momentum of IT spending in 2023 and the trend toward finding managed services solutions, what is holding companies back from increasing their IT spending even more in this category? One trend could be related to the pain points experienced by organizations that have pursued a relationship with a managed services provider (MSP) in the past. They include: Insufficient response times An MSP’s lack of technical knowledge An inability to understand clients’ IT environments An MSP’s understaffed technical resources Poor customer support/communication Inadequate security monitoring Fortunately, these areas of concern are strengths for Rimini Street and our Rimini Manage™ offerings. Rimini Support™ and Rimini Manage™ offerings are built with our clients at the center, with the goal of providing superior levels of service and responsiveness. Proof that we are achieving our goal comes from our client satisfaction ratings that average 4.9 out of 5.0 in thousands of surveys. Rimini Street is structured to deliver ultra-responsive, expert-level support to our global clients from a service delivery team of nearly 1,000 FTEs working across 17 countries in a true 24x7x365 “follow-the-sun” operation. And our Global Security Services teams are staffed with product specialists and senior security professionals who have extensive experience in enterprise software security. Learn more about our Rimini Manage suite of managed services for applications and databases, including our unlimited ticket model, broad catalog of services, industry-leading SLAs, and global team of highly skilled engineers. Let’s discuss how outsourcing the day-to-day operations of your enterprise applications and databases to Rimini Street would be a smart line item in your 2023 IT budget. To learn more, visit us here. Related content brandpost The future of ERP: With composable ERP, interoperability and integration are not optional In a composable world, how do you ensure that the products and services comprising the application portfolio are bolted together properly, and can interoperate seamlessly? By Tanya O'Hara Sep 19, 2023 6 mins IT Leadership brandpost Is an integrated ERP suite or a composable ERP strategy right for you? A composable ERP strategy is gaining traction among IT leaders By Tanya O'Hara Sep 06, 2023 7 mins IT Leadership brandpost How a unified approach to support and services can improve IT outcomes Modernizing IT support and services should be a part of IT modernization By Tanya O'Hara Aug 28, 2023 7 mins Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe