Statistically Speaking

A survey of 188 U.S. businesses by Gartner Executive Programs (EXP) revealed that 61 percent of survey respondents have projected some level of increase in IT staff for the next 12-month period. At the same time the survey reported a 1 percent increase in employee-initiated turnover rate across the board compared with last year's survey results. The average FY06 base salary increase for IT employees is also expected to rise to 3.6 percent, a 0.1 percent increase over FY05.

SMBs worldwide will to spend $11.4 billion on IT security and infrastructure this year to thwart increasing electronic threats, and this spending trend will increase at a double-digit rate over the next several years, according to a study by AMI-Partners. "Over 75 percent of all medium businesses (100--999 employees) and almost 60 percent of the small businesses (1--99 employees) surveyed in the developed economies indicated that enhancing IT security was very important for them," says Anil Miglani, senior vice president at AMI-Partners and author of the report.

Advertising budgets will increase across all industries in 2006 and 2007 due to a strengthening economy and a multiplying of advertising channels, according to the 30th annual edition of "Advertising Ratios and Budgets," a study by Schonfeld and Associates. Expenditures in advertising are expected to increase 8.6 percent by the end of this year.

In 2006 SMBs will spend close to one third more on both mobile voice and mobile data services than in 2005, according to Forrester Research's annual study, "The State of Enterprise Network and Telecom Adoption." Fifty-six percent of enterprises expect spending on mobile voice to increase, while 63 percent expect mobile data spending to increase. Results are based on Forrester's survey of telecom decision-makers.

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