Latest Reports

• Working From Home Was Already Surging Before Pandemic

  The practice of working remotely has skyrocketed over the past 11 years for many reasons, and in early 2020 it got a huge boost with the COVID-19 pandemic. Untold millions of workers around the world started working from home in March 2020, after thousands of companies and governments instructed them to do so. This Research Byte summarizes the findings in our full report.

  March, 2020

• The ERP Support Staffing Puzzle

  Right-sizing the support staff for an ERP system can be complicated. This is there are many factors that affect the support staffing ratio. These include the type of ERP system, its age, the extent of modification, industry sector, and more. Nevertheless, understanding support requirements for ERP systems is vital for IT leaders. This research byte provides a summary of our full report on ERP support staffing ratios.

  January, 2021

• IT Spending as a Percentage of Revenue by Industry, Company Size, and Region

  This Research Byte analyzes IT spending as a percentage by industry, IT costs as a percentage of revenue by company size, and IT budgets as a percentage of revenue by region. We discuss why it is better to evaluate percentiles rather than average IT spending. Finally, we outline other key metrics for IT budget analysis, such as IT spending per employee, IT spending per user, and IT spending per desktop.

  January, 2021

• Very Small Organizations Struggling for IT Budget

  For the first time, Computer Economics has conducted a study on the IT spending habits of organizations in the U.S. and Canada that are too small to qualify for our annual benchmarks survey. We decided to examine the IT spending habits of these “very small organizations” with a dedicated survey to determine their spending habits and priorities, and to provide some metrics that can be used to benchmark their spending. This Research Byte provides a summary and description of our full report on IT spending and staffing in very small organizations.

  November, 2019

• IT Leaders on Edge as Budgets Continue Only Modest Gains

  Here at the end of 2019, we find that IT leaders worldwide have a positive outlook for the global economy. Nevertheless, hat outlook is tinged with frustration compared to previous years. It is not exactly that leaders fear a recession (though an increasing number do) so much as they are becoming fed up with years of modest increases and not-so-modestly increasing demands for service. This research byte summarizes the full report, Worldwide IT Spending and Staffing Outlook for 2020.

  January, 2020

• Employee Centricity and Customer Experience Takes The Forefront

  COVID-19 has brought focus back on collaboration, automation, and security, however this time it centers around employee engagement and customer experience. Owing to the pandemic, there is sudden change in people’s habits and preferences, specifically the way they operate and interact as they embrace work-from-home culture. Progressive enterprises are adopting a “cloud-first” strategy and looking for newer digital ways of working and serving their customers. Zensar, being cognizant of this trend, has already identified and laid out a digital enterprise priority, hinged around enabling experience, business agility, and automation.

  October, 2020

• Amid Changes, Communications Support Staff Increases

  Corporate communications systems have become more sophisticated in recent years. As a result, it is becoming more difficult to determine how to staff the role of supporting them. As such, the size of the communications system support staff as a percentage of the IT staff has been prone to large fluctuations in recent years. This Research Byte provides a summary of our full report on communications support staffing ratios.

  January, 2019

• Covid-19 Pandemic Boosting Demand for Web/E-commerce Personnel

  Web/e-commerce support personnel have been increasing as a share of the typical IT staff over the past five years. And now, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this IT staff position is getting a big boost as organizations are having to increase their digital interactions with customers, partners, and suppliers.This Research Byte summarizes the five-year trend in web/e-commerce staffing ratios.

  April, 2020

• Application Maintenance Staff Getting Pulled in Two Directions

  The share of the typical IT staff devoted to applications maintenance declined this year.. However, this metric is not yet showing a trend and is fluctuating as organizations grapple with expanding software portfolios at the same time they are converting some of their portfolios to SaaS, which should require less of a maintenance effort. This Research Byte provides a summary of our full report on application maintenance staffing ratios.

  March, 2019

• How CIOs Risk Becoming Irrelevant

  During the late 1990s the median IT organization in North America experienced double-digit IT operational budget growth. Even as recently as 2006 to 2008, IT budgets were growing in the 4% to 5% range. But today, IT budgets are growing only 2 % at the median and the outlook for 2012 is unchanged.

  December, 2011

• A Tug of War in Help Desk Staffing

  Help desk staffing is in a state of flux right now, and right now increasing demands from the business are driving up headcount. In fact, the help desk staffing ratio took a big jump in 2019, bringing it to its highest level in the past five years. Some help desk roles are being expanded, but it remains to be seen if other factors will reduce demand for this important function. This Research Byte summarizes our full report on help desk staffing ratios.

  January, 2020

• Why Have IT Manager Staffing Levels Suddenly Become More Volatile?

  The ratio of IT managers to total IT staff has been a remarkably steady metric over the years. Nevertheless, this staffing ratio took a jump last year and fell back again this year. Although economic conditions can explain some of the volatility, there are other factors at work. This Research Byte examines possible causes.

  August, 2019