Latest Reports

• Communications System Support Staffing Ratios 2023

  Hybrid work is making communications support more complicated, as workers move beyond email and texting to video conferencing and enterprise social media groups. Because of the rise of consumerization, employees and customers are demanding more immersive experiences, even virtual reality. Cloud-based communication and the rise of artificial intelligence are also changing the role of the communications support staff members. All of this is set to put greater demands on corporate communications in 2023.

  June, 2023

• IT Staffing Ratios: Benchmarking Metrics and Analysis for 16 Key IT Job Functions

  The analysis of IT staffing data has been a core competency of Computer Economics since we began publishing our annual IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks study in 1990. Each year, we survey more than 200 IT organizations across 10 major industry sectors, based on our sampling model, to obtain data on IT staffing levels, server counts, network infrastructure, outsourcing, and spending, among other information pertinent to the assessment of IT staffing.

  March, 2024

• IT Management and Administration Staffing Ratios 2023

  When it comes to IT managers, it is important to find the “sweet spot.” Too many managers and the IT group can become top-heavy and bureaucratic; too few and IT staff members may feel unsupported and without direction. Overworked managers may be pulled in too many directions, and insufficient management resources may push management tasks on to workers who are ill-equipped to take on those roles.

  June, 2023

• Network Support Staffing Ratios 2023

  The COVID-19 pandemic increased the number of employees working from home. This accelerated an already increasing demand for network support staff brought on by cloud transformation and caused the number of network support personnel to spike in 2021. However, 2022 trends show a decrease in network support staffing to below pre-pandemic levels. This may be due to businesses reverting to “normal” operations, an increase in automation, a growth in other IT areas, or a combination of these and other factors.

  May, 2023

• Server Support Staffing Ratios 2023

  The demand for server support administrators has been on a downward trend for a decade. Virtualization, automation, DevOps, and the cloud have made IT infrastructure easier to administer. As a result, the IT infrastructure support burden is lessening, although there are factors also working in the other direction. We examine those factors in this new report, part of our IT staffing series.

  April, 2023

• Web/E-Commerce Staffing Ratios 2023

  Social media, mobile devices, multimedia, and even the prospects of the metaverse, are increasing the ways customers and suppliers interact. The omnichannel experience will pressure organizations to build larger web and e-commerce footprints. With that increasing pressure, we expect web/e-commerce staffing to also increase. The Research Byte summarizes the five-year trend in web/e-commerce staffing ratios.

  February, 2023

• Business Analyst Staffing Ratios 2023

  The business analyst staffing ratio appears to be declining, but the role is not falling in importance. Therefore, as business users become more IT-savvy, it is only natural that business analysts would increasingly be rising up within the business rather than in the IT organization. The Research Byte summarizes our full report on business analyst staffing ratios.

  February, 2023

• Help Desk Staffing Ratios 2023

  The help desk plays an important role in the delivery of IT services to the business. However, in 2022, help desk staffing declined to a level not seen since prior to the pandemic. Businesses are adapting to new working models, which may be one factor impacting this staffing ratio. The Research Byte summarizes our full report on help desk staffing ratios.

  January, 2023

• Database Administration Staffing Ratios 2022

  Database administration (DBA) staffing remained steady in 2022, even though organizations are capturing and analyzing greater amounts of data. One reason DBA staffing levels are not rising is technology, specifically AI/ML, which is assisting DBAs in collecting, sorting, managing, and controlling ever-larger volumes of data. The Research Byte summarizes this full report on database administration staffing ratios.

  January, 2023

• IT Project Management Staffing Ratios 2022

  The role of the IT project manager is critical in this dynamic, changing IT environment. The rise in the remote/hybrid work model puts project managers in the middle of recreating business and project management processes to reflect a more dispersed workforce. This Research Byte provides a summary of our full report on IT project management staffing ratios.

  December, 2022

• Application Developer Staffing Ratios 2022

  The process of developing and maintaining enterprise applications is changing. Agile methodologies and DevOps are contributing factors to the decline in application developer staffing ratios. Low-code/no-code, rapid application development approaches that aim to reduce coding and application development times further reduce the need for developers. Developers still make up the largest portion of most IT organizations, and they are quite expensive. Therefore, IT leaders should assess their developer needs in order to optimize their personnel budgets.

  November, 2022

• IT Security Staffing Ratios 2022

  High-profile security attacks and the impact of remote work continue to put pressure on IT security personnel. This report presents the five-year trend in IT security staffing and provides benchmarks for understanding the IT security staff head count. We analyze IT security staffing in terms of the number of applications, users, and network devices. Our analysis also includes the influence of organization size and sector on staffing requirements. We conclude with recommendations for optimizing IT security staffing. (21 pp., 9 fig.)

  April, 2022