UK IT budgets set to decrease in 2017

Budgets across North America and EMEA will stay flat, according to the latest figures from market watcher Spiceworks

Continuing uncertainty over Brexit will cause IT budgets in the UK to shrink by five per cent, while budgets in other regions will stay flat, according to data released by Spiceworks.

However, the professional network's figures also revealed that 60 per cent of EMEA respondents will see IT headcount remain flat next year despite an expectation that company revenues will increase.

In addition, 33 per cent of IT professionals in EMEA said global political and economic uncertainty directly affects their willingness to purchase IT products and services, with 51 per cent saying it also causes their organisation to reconsider in which countries they store corporate data, and 35 per cent said it makes them think about where they buy technology and services from.

John Webb, general manager of Europe at Spiceworks, said: "In addition to more conservative IT investments, the expected fallout from political and economic instability caused by issues such as Brexit has led to many question marks around the future of data governance in the UK and the country's ability to employ skilled workers and influence the global IT market.

"IT pros in EMEA, particularly the UK, will have to do more with less in the coming year as belts are tightened due to fluctuating exchange rates, regulation changes and other unforeseen challenges."

The results also revealed that IT professionals in EMEA will spend a majority of their 2017 IT budgets on hardware and software, but with hardware budgets accounting for 35 per cent and software 28 per cent. Budgets for managed service projects will account for 13 per cent.

However, in better news for the channel, 17 per cent of IT budgets will be spent on hosted/cloud-based service projects, up three per cent on the previous year.