45% of small business will upgrade their desktop apps in the next 12 months

In-Stat surveyed small business decision-makers regarding which areas of IT investment are expected to be the most important over the next twelve months. Given their responses, In-Stat believes that IT decision makers will be focused on building capability, improving security, and increasing storage. The greatest percentage of respondents, 45%, indicated "upgrading desktop applications" as an important area of investment, likely to improve the computing capabilities of end-users. In line with this, 28% of respondents indicated "web-enabling company applications," suggesting that upgrading and empowering applications will be a top priority in this market in 2005.

"Storage management" was indicated by roughly 28% of small business respondents as an important area of investment. Another 28% of respondents indicated "maintaining data security." In the same vein, further emphasizing the importance of security in this market, 20% of respondents indicated "improving security policies/solutions" as an important area of IT/telecom investment, underscoring the rising concern that small business decision-makers have about protecting their business data.