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SECURITY STILL THE MAJOR PRIORITY FOR I.T PROFESSIONALS
Added: (Wed Sep 21 2005)
VNU Research, a division of VNU Business Publications, today announced the results of its annual ImageTrak Business IT Survey 2005 which revealed that security is still the major concern for IT and financial decision makers in the UK. The survey, which polled over 5,000 IT and Financial decision makers, drawn from VNU’s extensive circulation databases of UK professionals, examines IT concerns and priorities over the next 12-18 months as well as polling perception and satisfaction levels with specific IT vendors.
Key findings of the 2005 survey include:
•This year’s findings were consistence in terms of the underlying concerns influencing IT strategy when compared to 2004
•System security was still the number one concern with 76 percent of respondents citing System Security as “very important” and 97 percent acknowledging it was “very” or “fairly” important”. Information Security was also rated highly this year and remains one of the top 2 priorities for the fourth year in a row.
•Legislation and compliance remain key concerns but their importance has not grown discernibly year on year which suggests that current pressures are manageable.
•Enabling mobile working is showing up as a technology concern but is not as yet a business priority.
“In an era where seemingly every day brings a new denial of service attack, virus or Trojan threat we are not surprised to see security again top the list of IT issues that are of most concern to businesses,” said James Burckhardt, Head of Research at VNU. “This year’s ImageTrak results also point to a recovery in confidence and investment in technology with early signs that more investment is being directed at business growth rather than purely cost management and reduction.”
Analysis of customer satisfaction data on 50 IT vendors gathered through the ImageTrak 2005 Survey sees IT Services businesses occupying five out of the bottom ten positions made up of such companies. At the top end Cisco slips one place to second year-on-year, achieving a satisfaction rating of 86%, with AMD topping the poll at 87% and security business MessageLabs in third place at 85%. Two other security vendors, Sophos (4th, 82%) and RSA (9th, 79%), made the top ten but the biggest category was hardware with four vendors represented – AMD (1st, 87%), HP (6th, 81%), Intel (8th 80%) and Dell (10th, 79%). As in previous years, vendors that have built long-standing relationships with IT decision makers and have a strong track record for high performance technology tend to score best in terms of satisfaction.
“The priority given to security concerns in this year’s ImageTrak Survey is also reflected in higher than average awareness levels for security vendors in the customer satisfaction poll,” continued Burckhardt. “In a sector where satisfaction scores are generally high there is a strong vote of confidence in UK vendors with Sophos having maintaining a number 1 or 2 ranking over the past 3 years, though being edged out of the number 1 spot by another UK based company, Messagelabs, in 2005.”
The ImageTrak Business IT Survey 2005 was delivered online to a target group of readers randomly selected from the circulation lists of VNU’s market-leading publications’ IT Week, Computing and Financial Director.
Notes to Editors
•VNU Research’s ImageTrak Business IT Survey 2005 has been carried out for the past four years and is designed and managed by third party research company NOP World on behalf of VNU Research.
•The survey polled over 5,000 IT and Financial decision makers, drawn from VNU Business Publications extensive circulation databases of UK professionals receiving its market-leading publications’ IT Week, Computing and Financial Director.
•The ImageTrak 2005 Survey examines IT priorities facing companies over the next 12-18 months. It also addresses customer satisfaction levels for key IT brands.
•Incorporating findings on hardware, security, storage, networking, business applications and IT services, the data in the ImageTrak 2005 Survey is compiled from respondents from a variety of public and private sector organisations across various industries sectors and ranging from SMEs to large Enterprises.
About VNU
VNU is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognised brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media measurement and information (Nielsen Media Research), business information (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Computing, Intermediair) and directory publishing (Golden Pages).
VNU is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, The Netherlands, and New York, USA. The company employs 38,000 people. Total revenues amounted to EUR 3.9 billion in 2003. VNU is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam (ASE: VNU) stock exchange. For more information, please visit the VNU website at http://www.vnu.com