Small businesses lose more than $24 billion in productivity every year when non-technical employees, referred to as involuntary IT managers (IITMs), are tasked with managing their company’s IT solutions. This loss is a direct result of the IITMs taking time away from their primary business activities, according to an AMI-Partners small-business study commissioned by Microsoft Corp.
The Involuntary IT Manager study takes a broad look at the prevalence of the IITM’s role in nine countries in North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, focusing specifically on the adverse business productivity impact of IITMs in small business in Australia, Brazil, Chile, India and the United States. Surveying 538 IITMs across nationally representative samples of small businesses with 100 employees or less in the five countries, the AMI-Partners research study determined that approximately 3.8-million small businesses managed internal IT by IITMs. Although such small businesses spent $83 billion on IT and communications, paradoxically they lost $24 billion in productivity trying to manage their internal IT. The survey also found that small businesses’ IITMs think cloud-based solutions can help alleviate some of the burdens of managing IT.
On average, IITMs lose six hours per week (around 300 hours per year) of business productivity while managing IT, according to AMI-Partners. The white paper stated that while some IITMs are confident in their technical skills, most find that their general work productivity suffers when their work time is diverted to managing IT issues. 30% of all surveyed IITMs feel that IT management is a nuisance, 26% indicated they do not feel qualified to manage IT. 6 in 10 IITMs want to simplify their company’s technology solutions to alleviate the difficulty of managing day-to-day IT.
Small businesses in India lost $2.67 billion in productivity, while spending $6.67 billion on IT/Telecom. IITMs in India lose 7.6 hours of productivity per week managing IT – this was the highest productivity loss of all countries surveyed.
“Many small businesses don’t have the budget for formal IT support, so they rely on the company’s most tech-savvy individual to manage their technology,” stated Andy Bose, Founder, Chairman and CEO at AMI-Partners.
“The cloud, when delivered right, is a game-changer, providing small businesses with the IT solutions they need to solve their most challenging small-business technology concerns,” said Meetul B. Patel, General Manager – SMS&P India, Microsoft. “With Microsoft cloud solutions, the job of the Involuntary IT Manager gets a lot easier.”
AMI-Partners found that IITMs are interested in leveraging the cloud in the next 12 months to manage their IT needs.