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Help Desk Staffing Ratios 2021
The help desk not only plays a key role in maintaining user productivity, but it also serves as the day-to-day face of the IT organization. This report provides staffing benchmarks for the help desk (service desk). We look at the trend in help desk staffing over a five-year period and provide five benchmarks by organization size and sector: help desk staff as a percentage of the IT staff, users per help desk staff member, applications per help desk staff member, first-call resolution rate, and help desk tickets per end-user support staff member. Because companies organize the end-user support function in different ways, we also provide benchmarks for a combined help desk and desktop support staff. We conclude with recommendations on optimizing help desk staffing levels.
October, 2021
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Database Administration Staffing Ratios 2021
As enterprises collect more data and connect more applications, they must ensure that data is secure, reliable, and accessible. But despite these increased demands, companies are restraining the growth in their database administration staff. This report helps IT managers determine whether they are keeping pace with industry standards by providing four benchmarks: database administrators (DBAs) as a percentage of the IT staff, DBAs as a percentage of the Data Center Group, users per DBA, and business applications per DBA. We present benchmarks for small, midsize, and large organizations and examine the influence by sector on these benchmarks. We conclude with best practices for optimizing DBA staffing.
October, 2021
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Application Development Outsourcing Trends and Customer Experience 2021
The outsourcing of the application development function grew a noticeable amount in our annual IT Outsourcing Statistics study after two years being stuck at a lower percentage. Why the uptick? For starters, there is much going on in the application development universe. This report examines adoption trends and customer experience with application development outsourcing. We report on the percentage of organizations outsourcing it (frequency), the average amount of work outsourced (level), and the change in the amount of work being outsourced (trend). We also present data on the cost and service experience and on how these trends differ by organization size and sector. We conclude with guidelines to consider when outsourcing application development.
October, 2021
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CRM Adoption Trends and Customer Experience 2021
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are one of the most widely adopted categories of enterprise applications, and investment in new CRM capabilities continues to grow. This report provides an overview of key concepts in the CRM space. We also examine CRM adoption and investment trends, showing how many organizations have the technology in place, how many are in the process of implementing it, and how many are expanding implementations. We then look at the return on investment (ROI) experience, total cost of ownership (TCO) experience, and which type of applications are the most popular. We conclude with recommendations to ensure CRM implementation success and to encourage user adoption.
September, 2021
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European IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks 2021/2022: Full Study
This report is a companion study to our annual IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks study, which provides a full set of IT budgetary benchmarks and IT staffing metrics by industry sector and organizational size. This companion study for Europe should be used in conjunction with our full study to provide insight into how high-level spending and staffing benchmarks differ for European organizations.
September, 2021
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Data Classification and Retention Adoption and Best Practices 2021
Creating a formal classification scheme is an important element in managing data for security, disaster recovery, and retention purposes. Yet, many organizations—even those that profess a commitment to protecting corporate and customer information—fail to implement data classification. This report begins by defining data classification and retention. We next study the adoption and practice levels and examine those by organization size and sector. We conclude with best-practice recommendations.
July, 2021
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Website Accessibility Adoption and Best Practices 2021
Website accessibility is a best practice requiring the use of inclusive website design to facilitate use by people with disabilities, including visual, hearing, motor skills, or cognitive impairment. When this practice is followed formally and consistently, the experience is improved for people with disabilities who can better understand, navigate, and interact with an organization’s websites. In this report, we study the adoption and practice levels for website accessibility and examine those by organization size and sector. We conclude with practical recommendations for getting started with website accessibility.
August, 2021
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ERP Adoption Trends and Customer Experience 2021
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have long been one of the most adopted and mature technologies we track, and new investment in ERP systems also remains relatively high. This study helps IT executives understand how aggressively their peers are investing in ERP and the risks and rewards presented by those investments. We report adoption and investment rates by sector and organization size. We also measure customer experience in terms of the success rates for return on investment and total cost of ownership. We identify the functional areas where organizations are planning or considering making new investments in ERP. We also examine where ERP systems are deployed as well as their typical age and length of time between version upgrades. We wrap up with recommendations for improving the ROI of ERP.
August, 2021
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Web Operations Outsourcing Trends and Customer Experience 2021
Web operations outsourcing is one of the most popular types of managed services. As the pandemic showed more than ever, organizations of all kinds continue to expand their efforts in online marketing, website management, and e-commerce. To help IT executives better assess their options, this report analyzes the percentage of organizations outsourcing web operations (frequency), the average amount of work outsourced (level), and the change to the amount of work being outsourced (net growth trend). We also present data on cost and service experience and how these trends differ by organization size and sector. We conclude with recommendations on how to engage with a web, e-commerce, or electronic data interchange (EDI) service provider.
August, 2021
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IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks 2021/2022: Full Study
Our IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks study for 2021/2022 provides a comprehensive view of the current state of IT budgeting and staffing levels for business and governmental organizations in the US and Canada, based on our 32nd annual survey. Detailed metrics are provided by organization size and by industry sector.
July, 2021
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Robotic Process Automation Adoption Trends and Customer Experience 2021
Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of software “robots” to automate processes that are normally performed by clerical or administrative users. This report provides an overview of RPA adoption and investment trends, providing data on how many organizations have solutions in place, how many are in the process of implementing it, and how many are expanding implementations. We also look at the return on investment (ROI) experience, total cost of ownership (TCO) experience, and considered or planned uses for new RPA investments. We conclude with important principles to apply in planning and implementing RPA solutions.
June, 2021
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IT Project Management Staffing Ratios 2021
In this study, we assess how many project managers a typical IT organization requires. We present five benchmarks: project managers as a percentage of the IT staff, project managers as a percentage of the application group, users per project manager, applications per project manager, and application programmers per project manager. Our analysis also includes the influence of organization size and industry sector. We conclude with recommendations on assessing the performance of the project management function.
May, 2021
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IT Help Desk Outsourcing Trends and Customer Experience 2021
The decision to turn over an IT organization’s help desk function to a service provider has a long and varied history. It is one of the services that helped establish the contemporary IT outsourcing industry. Even so, our research shows that help desk outsourcing is not as pervasive as one might think. In this report, we analyze the percentage of organizations outsourcing help desk (frequency), the average amount of work outsourced (level), and the change in the amount of work being outsourced (trend). We also present data on cost and service experience and on how these trends differ by organization size and sector. We conclude with some key questions to consider.
March, 2021
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IT Security Outsourcing Trends and Customer Experience 2021
IT security has become a major focus for IT leaders in 2021. This is because the threat landscape is evolving with increased reliance on the cloud, a greater diversity in the IT service portfolio, more employees working from home, and a more burdensome regulatory environment. This report helps IT executives compare their outsourcing activity and experience with other IT organizations. We use three metrics to measure IT security outsourcing activity: how many organizations outsource IT security (frequency), how much of the workload is typically outsourced (level), and the change in the amount of work outsourced (trend). We also measure the cost and service experience of organizations that outsource this function and determine how outsourcing activity and experience vary by organization size and sector. We conclude with recommendations.
May, 2021