Staffing for web and e-commerce functions appears to be rising again after a long period of stability. The rise is slight and manageable. Still, e-commerce sales continue to grow, and investments in cloud architecture, mobile applications, and social networking are placing new demands on web and e-commerce functions.
As shown in Figure 1 from our study, Web/E-Commerce Staffing Ratios, web staff as a percentage of the total IT staff is an average 3.2%, the same as in 2012. That level is up slightly over the previous three years, during which it remained relatively steady at an average of about 2.7%. This is the highest it has reached since prior to the dot-com bust, when 5% levels were more common.
The data suggests IT organizations are shifting a slightly higher percentage of their human resources toward Internet and e-commerce functions. This could be because they have not reduced staffing in this area as much as other areas or because they are investing in online systems and infrastructure at a slightly higher rate than other areas. The net effect is the same: IT resources are shifting toward this function.
In the full study, we provide benchmarks for staffing functions related to web and e-commerce development and operations. We benchmark web staffing with three ratios: web/e-commerce staff as a percentage of the IT staff, users per web/e-commerce staff member, and applications per web/e-commerce staff member. For organizations with less division of labor, we also assess the size of the web support staff as a percentage of all personnel engaged in supporting and developing applications. Finally, we examine the influence of sector and organization size on web staffing.
This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report on this subject, Web/E-Commerce Staffing Ratios. The full report is available at no charge for Computer Economics clients, or it may be purchased by non-clients directly from our website (click for pricing).
Do you also need staffing ratios for other IT job functions? Consider this collection of all of our staffing ratio reports, which bundles them all into a single report at a significant discount: IT Staffing Ratios–Special Report Bundle.
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