European IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks Study

Preparing a benchmark for IT spending or IT employee staffing levels can be a difficult exercise for any business. Our European IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks study makes the job easier for IT executives in Europe by providing an IT spending framework with key ratios, statistics, and other IT cost metrics for strategic IT budget analytics. IT spending as a percent of revenue and other IT budget ratios are provided for selected industries and company sizes in Europe.

This study 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 for private and public companies and for governmental organizations, based on our annual in-depth survey of over 200 information technology executives. 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.

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The Full European Study (all chapters)

Download or purchase the full study (all 14 chapters):  Save 20%.

Summary Chapters

Chapter 1: Executive Summary, Europe (Free Download)
Chapter 2: Composite Benchmarks, Europe
Chapter 3A: Benchmarks by Organization Size: Small, Europe
Chapter 3B: Benchmarks by Organization Size: Midsize, Europe
Chapter 3C: Benchmarks by Organization Size: Large, Europe

Industry Sector Benchmarks

Chapter 4: Process Manufacturing, Europe
Chapter 5: Discrete Manufacturing, Europe
Chapter 6: Financial Services, Europe
Chapter 7: Retail, Europe
Chapter 8: Wholesale Distribution, Europe
Chapter 9: Energy and Utilities, Europe
Chapter 10: Professional and Technical Services, Europe
Chapter 11: IT Services and Solutions, Europe
Chapter 12: Food and Beverage, Europe

INTENDED AUDIENCE

For CIOs and consulting firms, this chapter study provides key metrics and unbiased data for you to benchmark an organization’s total IT spending and staffing levels. This study will allow you to achieve the following outcomes:

• • Benchmark your IT operational spending levels. Compare them with those of European organizations of similar size and industry sector. IT cost management ratios and other IT support metrics are provided, such as IT budget as a percent of revenue and IT budget per employee/user, allowing IT executives to highlight opportunities to reduce IT costs, optimize IT expenses, and improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and governance of the IT organization.
  • Measure your IT capital budget spend levels. We report IT capital budget as a percentage of the total IT budget, to help stakeholders understand how their IT capital spending compares to their industry peers.
  • Manage your IT staffing levels. We report the percentage of the employee head count that are users of IT and the number of users that each IT staff member supports, allowing business executives to better understand whether their IT staffing levels appear overstaffed or understaffed relative to the market.

As noted previously, for a complete set of IT spending and staffing metrics, this 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 Europe.

KEY METRICS DESCRIPTIONS

This section lists all the key metrics provided in the full study for all chapters.

Demographics

In Section 1, we describe the key characteristics of the sample to establish a basis for comparison with other IT organizations. These key metrics are as follows:

• • Organization size demographics, including revenue, employees, revenue per employee, and revenue per user
  • IT spending demographics, including total IT spending, IT operational spending, IT capital budget, and IT outsourcing budget
  • Key metrics of IT intensity, including users to employees, PCs per user, percentage of users with tablets, and percentage of users with smartphones

IT Spending by Type

In Section 2, we provide IT spending benchmarks by type of spending. These key metrics not only provide additional demographic information but also identify IT trends. They include:

• • Outsourcing as a percentage of IT budget
  • IT spending outside IT budget
  • Cloud software as a percentage of application spending

Total IT Spending Metrics

Section 3 presents key metrics for IT spending, which includes current-year IT operational and capital spending, but excludes depreciation. These key metrics include:

• • Total IT spending as a percentage of revenue
  • Total IT spending per user
  • Total IT spending per PC

IT Operational Spending Metrics

Section 4 presents key metrics for IT operational spending. These key metrics are as follows:

• • Trend in IT operational budgets
  • Change in IT operational budgets
  • IT operational spending as a percentage of revenue
  • IT operational spending per user
  • IT operational spending per PC
  • Depreciation as a percentage of IT operational budget

IT Capital Spending Metrics

Section 5 provides an analysis of IT capital budgets, specifically IT capital budget as a percentage of total IT budget.

IT Staffing Metrics

In Section 6, we provide key metrics and trend data on IT staffing, specifically:

• • Employees per IT staff member
  • Users per IT staff member
  • Annual training allocation per IT employee

EUROPEAN CHAPTER DESCRIPTIONS

Chapter 1: Executive Summary (Free Download)

This chapter provides an overview of the key findings from the European study and describes the contents of the subsequent chapters. It also includes information on the study participants and the survey methodology.

• • IT Operational Budget Change from Prior Year: US and Canada vs. Europe
  • IT Operational Budget Changes: US and Canada vs. Europe
  • IT Operational Budget Changes by Organization Size: US and Canada vs. Europe
  • IT Spending as a Percentage of Revenue: US and Canada vs. Europe
  • IT Spending per User: US and Canada vs. Europe
  • IT Spending per PC: US and Canada vs. Europe
  • Capital Spending as a Percentage of Total IT Budget: US and Canada vs. Europe
  • Cloud Subscription Rates: US and Canada vs. Europe
  • Outsourcing as a Percentage of Total IT Budget: US and Canada vs. Europe
  • Personnel Spending as a Percentage of IT Operational Budget: US and Canada vs. Europe
  • Spending Priorities by Spending Categories, Europe, All Sectors
  • Spending Priorities by IT Initiative: Europe, All Sectors

Chapter 2: Composite Benchmarks

This chapter provides composite metrics for all of the organizations surveyed, across all industry sectors and organization sizes. The key metrics provided in this chapter are listed in the Key Metrics Descriptions section above.

Chapters 3A, 3B, and 3C: Benchmarks by Organization Size

In these three chapters, we analyze each of our IT spending and staffing metrics by organization size. This chapter classifies organization size differently than most classification schemes. We use the size of the IT operational budget, as revenue is not always a good indicator of the size of the IT operation. This enables IT organizations to compare themselves against similar-size IT organizations. We define the size categories as follows:

• • Chapter 3A: Benchmarks for Small Organizations

IT operational budgets less than €5 million

• • Chapter 3B: Benchmarks for Midsize Organizations

IT operational budgets between €5 million and less than €20 million

• • Chapter 3C: Benchmarks for Large Organizations

IT operational budgets €20 million or greater

Despite the fact that this is a European study, we determined organization size in US dollars. This was to ensure an apples-to-apples size comparison between our main study and the European companion study. All metrics in the study are reported in euros. To avoid the problem of having very small organizations in our sample, we have excluded respondents with less than $50 million in annual revenue.

Chapter 4: Process Manufacturing Sector Benchmarks

Chapter 4 provides benchmarks for process manufacturers. Process manufacturers are defined as those where the production process adds value by mixing, separating, forming, or chemical reaction. The sector includes manufacturers of chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, dietary supplements, food and beverage products, building materials, packaging materials, steel, glass, paper products, and other process-manufactured goods. The 49 respondents in the sample range in size from a minimum of €90 million to a maximum of above €21 billion in annual revenue.

Chapter 5: Discrete Manufacturing Sector Benchmarks

Chapter 5 provides benchmarks for discrete manufacturing organizations. Discrete manufacturers are defined as those where the production process adds value by fabricating or assembling individual (discrete) unit production. The category includes manufacturers of consumer products, industrial equipment, telecommunications equipment, aerospace products, auto parts, electrical parts, medical devices, and electronic devices, among other products. The 32 respondents in this sample range in size from a minimum of €74 million to over €70 billion in annual revenue.

Chapter 6: Financial Services Sector Benchmarks

Chapter 6 provides benchmarks for banking, insurance, and financial services companies. The firms in this sector include commercial banks, investment banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, consumer finance lenders, insurance companies, and other types of lenders and financial services providers. The 21 respondents in this sector range in size from a minimum of about €100 million to a maximum of €80 billion in annual sales.

Chapter 7: Retail Sector Benchmarks

Chapter 7 provides benchmarks for retailers. This sector includes retailers of clothing, hardware, furniture, sports equipment, groceries, pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements and health products, and general merchandise. They include department stores, furniture stores, pharmacies, sporting goods stores, and specialty retailers, both online and brick-and-mortar. We also include hospitality and consumer services in this sector. The 33 respondents in the sample range in size from €100 million to €27 billion in annual revenue.

Chapter 8, Wholesale Distribution Benchmarks

Chapter 8 provides benchmarks for wholesale distributors. The category includes wholesale distributors of building products, home furnishings, home improvement products, auto parts, industrial components, electronics, food and beverage, and other products. The 15 respondents in the sample range in size from a minimum of about €60 million to about €30 billion in revenue.

Chapter 9: Energy and Utilities Sector Benchmarks

Chapter 9 provides benchmarks for public utilities, oil and gas producers, service companies, and midstream distributors across all organization sizes. The 14 respondents in this sector include public utilities (water, gas, and electric), integrated energy companies, upstream exploration and production companies, natural gas companies, pipeline operators, and other energy and utilities companies. The companies in our sample range in size from a minimum of about €100 million to about €14 billion in annual revenue.

Chapter 10: Professional and Technical Services Sector Benchmarks

Chapter 10 provides benchmarks for professional and technical services organizations. The 35 respondents in the sample range in size from a minimum of about €50 million to about €70 billion in annual revenue. The sector includes firms that provide professional and technical services, including engineering, legal, accounting, financial advice, consulting, marketing, research, IT, and other services.

Chapter 11: IT Services and Solutions Sector Benchmarks

Chapter 11 provides IT spending and staffing statistics for the IT services and solutions sector. The category includes software companies, software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers, systems integrators, IT solution providers, business process outsourcing firms, and other providers of technology services and solutions. There are 19 organizations in the sample, ranging in size from around €50 million to about €10 billion in annual revenue.

Chapter 12: Food and Beverage Subsector Benchmarks

Chapter 12 provides benchmarks for food and beverage manufacturers. The 17 respondents in the sample range in size from about €100 million to about €22 billion in annual revenue. Food and beverage companies produce beverages, snack foods, meat products, seafood products, vegetables, dairy products, dietary supplements, pet food, and other consumable food products. Some are suppliers to other food manufacturers or to the food service industry, while many also distribute consumer products to retailers or directly to consumers.

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