Study by InfoTrends identifies training and technological investments asmost important IT initiatives in Middle Eastern and African businesses.
InfoTrends’ Market Pulse 2012: Middle East and Africa surveyed 463 IT decision makers in Israel, South Africa and Turkey, asking respondents to specify the three most important IT initiatives in their businesses for the next year, with results indicating that training, technological investments and security are seen as most significant.
Training trends tended to be a top concern for IT departments within emerging markets due to there often being a shortage of appropriately skilled job candidates, with companies with fewer than 10 employees and between 501 and 1,000 employees believing that they are most in need of training.
John Shane, Director of InfoTrends’ Communication Supplies Consulting Service commented: “To respond to this need, InfoTrends recommends that hardware and software vendors continue to provide training on how their products can be incorporated into the customer’s office environment, as well as how organizations can adapt to new technology and ways of working.”
As technology investments were also indicated as one of the most important IT initiatives by respondents, which InfoTrends identifies is good news for vendors, the market research firm recommends that vendors should strongly communicate why their printers and MFPs should be chosen over other categories of technology products, such as cloud technology, mobile devices and a customer relationship management (CRM) infrastructure.