Brexit is pushing many UK companies towards investing heavily in IT next year, in response to fears around the impact Brexit will bring according to new research by MHR Analytics.
A detailed poll of around 200 senior decision makers in both large and medium-sized UK businesses have been asked about their investment plans. The results have been published in the new report, ‘Business Insight: The Data Surge’.
Individuals who took part in the poll were asked which factor did they believe would be the most likely to trigger a fall in revenue for 2019. The majority (57 per cent) believed it to be Brexit with reduced consumer spending coming in at 22 per cent.
Another factor they placed their belief on was the recently implemented General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – 10 per cent of the individuals believed this would impact revenues. A minority of 7 per cent expressed that no factor would trigger a drop in revenue.
The survey found that businesses were boosting investment in key areas to deal with the revenue drop, with IT coming top by a significant margin, suggesting tech spend is of huge importance to companies. The major spends in 2019 is said by many businesses to be on IT (59 per cent), marketing (48 per cent) and sales (46 per cent).
Data is key
Business chiefs (96 per cent) when asked about the importance of data, responded positively, claiming to understand the cruciality of data for their company’s future. Despite this, one in ten businesses are yet to implement big data strategies, with just under a third regularly conducting big data projects.
Nick Felton of MHR Analytics says that it’s clear that businesses are braced for significant turbulence next year and are planning major investment in key areas to power through an anticipated drop in revenues.
Even though there are fears, companies are adopting a combative approach to this problem, with departments such as IT, marketing and sales all set for a cash injection,
‘With unpredictable market conditions, data management and analytics are critical for helping organisations deliver significant cost savings by enabling accurate decision-making. Despite a potential revenue dip, companies are still planning major investments, of which data management is a good choice in uncertain times,’ he says.
‘Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of the decision makers we surveyed believe their company’s response to big data has been positive, yet only 4 per cent recognise that managing big data will lead to less administration. Early analysis of these results suggests that a sharper focus on data management and analytics could be advantageous to companies in this constantly changing economic climate.’