IT spend per PC in the public sector is about half of
that in banking, motor manufacturing or construction, according to
the latest Computer Weekly IT Expenditure Survey, produced by Kew
Associates.
Despite five years of heavy investment in e-government, public
sector IT spending per PC is on a par with spending in the hotel
and catering sector, said Kris Wicka, author of the survey.
IT spending varies greatly across industry sector and by size of
company, so benchmarking IT spending per PC reveals far more about
the use of technology within and across sectors than simply
measuring IT spend per employee, said Wicka.
A good example of this can be found when looking at
organisations with 5,000 or more staff. On average, a bank's IT
spend per employee is more than three times that of motor
manufacturers and construction companies, but in terms of IT spend
per PC it is much more similar.
"Looking at IT spend per PC is a useful comparative measure
since it reflects actual users of IT and discounts staff with
little access to computers, such as some blue-collar workers,
construction workers and shelf stackers," said Wicka.
The perception that financial services organisations are more
heavily committed to IT than other sectors of the economy looks
different when you measure spend per PC, he said.
The larger the organisation, the more complex it is to run, with
more being spent on IT per person to maximise efficiency and
productivity, Wicka added.
Expenditure benchmarking
The Computer Weekly IT Expenditure Benchmarking Service,
produced by Kew Associates, provides information on IT spend norms
and trends. This is evaluated across 60 industry sectors and seven
organisation sizes.
The service covers 29 items of IT expenditure and forecasts two
years ahead. It is based on IT spend survey data from the Computer
Weekly database of more than 60,000 IT budget holders and
government statistics.
For more information contact Georgina Tucker at Computer
Weekly
georgina.tucker@rbi.co.uk