Equanet: IT managers struggle to keep up

VAR questioned over 2,000 UK IT managers and found some interesting results

Four out of five IT managers claim to be struggling to keep up with technology, according to research conducted by Equanet.

The firm questioned 2,000 IT managers throughout the UK, and 61 per cent admitted they are lacking the skills in handling new technologies such as cloud and mobile computing.

A total of 44 per cent of IT managers claimed to be struggling with virtualisation, and 38 per cent are finding it hard to come to terms with cloud computing, the research found.

It also revealed that 81 per cent encounter problems they are not adequately trained to deal with , and just four per cent of IT managers felt they could handle all the technical issues they encounter on the job.

Equanet’s research also found that the average UK business is losing more than one week (7.5 days) every year to IT downtime.

Phil Birbeck, managing director of Equanet commented: “Most organisations rely heavily on IT. As our study shows, companies throughout the UK are losing significant down-time as a result of computer related problems, stemming from the fact that IT managers are struggling to keep up-to-date with their skills.

In our experience, we have found that most IT issues are relatively straight-forward to solve given the correct training or deploying specialists when required. “Organisations simply cannot afford the constant training required to keep up to date with technology, and as a result IT managers feel they are lacking the appropriate support to do a good job.”