SMBs Plan Budget Increases To Replace Old Tech

According to a recent survey, SMB IT spending will show a modest rise from last year, as businesses start to replace old equipment they've held onto longer than usual.The survey of 1,250 small businesses was conducted by IT management system vendor Spiceworks on behalf of Baseline, a publication for IT and business executives. The participating businesses reported that they planned to increase spending this year over last, by an average of 9 percent. Much of that increased spending is going to replace technology assets that have "long overstayed their expiration dates," according to Baseline. As an example, nearly a quarter of desktop computers in the surveyed businesses are more than four years old, an increase of 14 percent from 2009. The number of servers that old also increased 14 percent, while the number of old laptops increased 22 percent. As a result, nearly 50 percent of SMB IT budgets will be spent on hardware this year.

Less of the increased spending is going to personnel, on the other hand. Seventy percent of the survey participants reported that they will have the same number of staff or fewer this year than last. The smallest companies -- those with fewer than 20 employees -- account for the largest planned increases in both staffing and spending.

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