UK IT departments will upgrade to deliver better results

UK IT departments will likely be spending the first part of 2007 upgrading their IT networks in a bid to deliver better business results, according to a survey of over 300 senior IT managers.

The survey, commissioned by value-added distributor of converged solutions Zycko and carried out by Vanson Bourne, discovered that 60% of respondents intend to upgrade their networks in the New Year in a bid to boost network performance. Data management, such as securing increasing data volumes, also continues to plague IT managers, with 39% admitting that it is a major headache.

There is a high level of dissatisfaction with existing network systems: only half of the CIOs questioned claimed to be happy with their suppliers, so upgrading networks to improve performance is the logical decision. Furthermore, of those questioned, 40% admitted that being locked into proprietary systems with expensive licensing upgrades was their heaviest grievance.

The CIOs and IT directors also revealed that network performance was also a major headache, with nearly three in five admitting that they worry regularly about network performance issues, revealed as a contributory factor behind their desire to upgrade. In the financial services industry, 71% of respondents claimed that maintaining network performance for end users is their primary networking headache.

David Galton-Fenzi, group sales director at Zycko, comments that internet downtime is not acceptable and that the onus is firmly on CIOs to make sure it never happens. Business users expect 100% performance from their IT networks and the pressure to deliver new technologies, such as VoIP or videoconferencing services is intense, he adds.