From divisions over unified communications to the green backlash, bMighty.com looks at what small and midsize companies can expect in 2008
Let's peek into the future all the way into the Year 2008 and predict the technology trends that will affect small and midsize businesses, and the lives of people who work at them.
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For weather forecasts, planting tables, and zodiac secrets, there is The Old Farmer's Almanac. For small and midsize business IT prognostication, there's only the hamster on a wheel that turns inside my head and Google. Together they've coughed up this list of tech trends to watch for in 2008.
- IT Spending and Salaries
- Nontraditional Funding Methods for SMBs
- The Backlash Against 'Green IT'
- Division Over Unified Communications
- IT's New Requirement: The User Experience
1. IT Spending Will Be a) Up, b) Down, c) Flat Foresoothing ain't easy, but that doesn't stop us media folks from trying. This is season when industry watchers like to make grand assertions about how much businesses will spend on hardware, software, and staffing in the coming year. For all our so-called expertise, it seems like we might as well be hurling darts in the basement of the corner pub:
IT spending in 2008 will be modest, good (for SMBs, anyway), or grim.
The outlook is just as murky for small businesses. A new RingCentral Customer Survey says small businesses will increase technology spending in 2008 with a focus on PCs and communications services. But the inaugural CDW IT Monitor survey shows small-business IT growth trailing that of larger companies. Just 26% of small businesses planned to boost their IT budgets in the next six months, compared with 46% of midsize firms and 43% of large businesses.
So your guess is as good as mine.
To combat the uncertainty, consider preparing two budgets, one based on marginal growth, the other on a 10% contraction in spending caused by a recession, advises Gartner.
Bigger IT Salaries Despite Economic Uncertainty The stock markets are in turmoil and the words "recession" and "inflation" have made an unwelcome return to the economic conversation. In the meantime, IT salaries are expected to rise in 2008, because of "a talent crunch in the IT industry -- the demand for talented tech professionals is higher than it's been in five years," reports Datamation in its 2008 Salary Guide.
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