SMBs in Russia to spend US$5.4B on IT infrastructure

NEW YORK: Small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Russia are set to spend US$5.4 billion this year to strengthen their IT infrastructure, up some 36 per cent over 2006, with the bulk of the SMBs citing data security as their topmost concern, according to the latest study from Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

“Almost 80 per cent of SMBs said that protection from electronic threats is the major motivator to invest in IT security,” says Nichelle McKenzie, New York-based Analyst at AMI Partners. “In real terms that means, small businesses (SBs) will spend US$16 million and medium businesses (MBs) will spend US$52 million on security solutions in Russia this year.”

An increasing number of SMBs in Russia are also planning to promote employee training in IT skills and knowledge, invest in new facilities, push advertising and promotional campaigns, and work more closely with select channel partners. AMI-Partners’ survey reveals that 23 per cent of SBs and 18 per cent of MBs saw revenue increases in 2006, and 41 per cent of SMBs said they saw an overall increase of over 17 per cent in annual revenues.

The proliferation of computing products such as PCs and printers still accounts for the majority share of SMB IT investments. Imaging, printing and peripherals made up 19 per cent of the spending.

“Despite SBs accelerating their IT investments, almost 50 per cent of non-PC owning SBs said that IT does not and will not play a key role in their overall business strategy,” McKenzie says. “About 40 per cent said PCs are useful to handle simple organizational tasks. Russia SMBs are not brand-loyal; and white box or non-branded desktop PCs are the most common option for both SBs and MBs.”

Storage spending among Russian SBs grew 30 per cent to reach US$115 million, while for MBs it rose 21 per cent to reach US$125 million in 2006. In the security space, 93 per cent of SMBs had some sort of anti-virus protection, and 48 per cent had some anti-spam protection in place.

Future investments will also target the lack of IT support and service personnel. About 37 per cent of Russian SBs reported having no one looking after IT service and support. Outsourcing to a third party is the most preferred option when SMBs want to have some type of technology management. “Most of them are smaller MBs that are predominately in the manufacturing and wholesale verticals. These are prime areas that vendors can target to market to in 2007 and 2008.”

CIOL Bureau