Findings of survey on ICT services and
infrastructure at large enterprises in Poland
In the first half of 2013 PMR carried out the next edition of its survey on ICT resources at large enterprises (250+ employees). The survey covered a wide range of issues – from purchase of hardware, to IT services, spending on software solutions and security policy.
Replacement of desktop and portable computers
Desktop computers at large enterprises are used for 5 years, on average. Compared to two years ago, the proportion of companies which choose to replace their desktops after 6 or more years went up by 18 p.p. The increase may result from the fact that nowadays computers that are even several years old are sufficient for ordinary office use, which does not require devices with particularly high computational powers. A similar growth of desktop computers life cycle has been observed among small and medium-sized enterprises (in a survey conducted in the first half of 2012).
Similar to the previous edition of our survey, laptops are not used for more than 4 years, on average, with a substantial majority of enterprises still choosing to replace their portable computers after 3-5 years.
IT hardware purchases
Last year an overwhelming majority of large enterprises (89%) decided to purchase desktop computers, three-fourths chose to buy laptops and one in ten went for netbooks. 96% of utility companies and 94% of machinery and equipment manufacturers contributed to the desktop purchases figures, while healthcare companies and providers of transport and logistics services held the lowest share in the total, with 82% of them buying these devices.
The largest share in the figure for laptop purchases is held by manufacturing and production, while the lowest contribution is made by healthcare companies (38%). Proportions for smartphone purchases are similar, with manufacturers of machinery and equipment dominating in this category and merely one in nine healthcare companies buying such devices in 2012. As for tablets and netbooks, it is mainly retail and wholesale enterprises that choose to buy them.
IT services
An overwhelming majority of enterprises use services supplied by external IT providers (90%). Three quarters of large organisations use the assistance of external companies in the area of hardware or software maintenance and repair (72%). More than half of the enterprises use external services for the purposes of implementing or developing their existing software (60%). Every second large scale enterprise orders IT training from external organisations (48%).
This year PMR expanded the report section covering various types of IT services offered by external companies by adding questions concerning external data centres. One in five of the surveyed enterprises uses such a solution. “For several years the so-called cloud services have been widely discussed. In the surveys of the ICT sector conducted in various areas (IT, telecommunications, SMEs) for a few years our respondents have been predicting dynamic growth in this market section. However, the share of large scale enterprises using this type of services remains at a relatively low level of 13%. Most frequently enterprises use the private cloud model, public or hybrid cloud services being definitely less popular” – comments Pawel Olszynka, Head ICT Market analyst at PMR and one of the report authors.
Office suites
The office suite MS Office is used in practically all large scale enterprises in Poland. The highest number of companies own one of the recent versions of the suite, with the number 2010 (71%). Somewhat lower share (65%) is contributed by the 2007 version, while slightly more than half of the organisations continue to use the 2003 version, now over 10 years old. The shares of other versions are much lower. The office suite most frequently used as an alternative to MS Office is the Open Source suite Apache OpenOffice (91%). Another type of software used is LibraOffice (27%).
IT security
Nearly two-thirds of the interviewees (63%) stated that in 2013 their companies would take measures with a view to improving their IT security. The measures will not be particularly different from the ones taken in 2012. As then, emphasis will be put on regulating the access to critical data, improving the protection of the enterprise resources against access from outside (in the form of firewalls or appropriate devices). Numerous interviewees also mentioned the implementation of data access procedures and generally regulating the issue of data access within an enterprise.
Methodology notes
This press release is based on information contained in the PMR report entitled “Software applications, ICT services and infrastructure for large scale enterprises in Poland 2013” The report is based on a survey carried out by PMR in the first quarter of 2013 on a group of large enterprises (at least 250 employees). Overall, PMR carried out 522 in-depth interviews.
The findings of the survey are representative for enterprises with at least 250 employees operating in Poland in the following sectors:
· Construction
· Education
· Mining
· Retail and wholesale trade and distribution
· Healthcare
· Manufacturing and production of machinery and equipment, metals, smelters, plastics, furniture, etc.
· Production of beverage, food, domestic detergents (FMCG)
· Utilities – power plants, CHP plants, waterworks and other
· Transport and logistics
During a statistical analysis, the data was weighted in order to correct differences between the structure of the sample and that of the entire group of enterprises with 250+ employees. The weights were prepared on the basis of the Central Statistical Office information on the number of enterprises operating in Poland as at the end of Q3 2012.
The survey focused on:
· market saturation levels of ICT solutions and market shares of key ICT providers and vendors
· popularity of selected telecommunications solutions in terms of total number of companies having or planning to employ them (ranging from mobile handsets to videoconferencing systems and IP VPN)
· penetration of various types of telecommunications devices and computer hardware in large enterprises (including smartphones and tablets)
· usage of IT products and services
· software categories: ERP, CRM, BI, SCM, CMS, SFA, CAD, database, document flow management, finance and accounting, antivirus, office, HR and payroll
· dedicated software implementations, hosting and open source apps
· usage of cloud computing (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, CaaS)
· third-party IT resources and service providers (including data centres)
· IT security
· level of employment in terms of IT staff
· current and future IT spending at top companies, IT budgets and sources of funding.
About PMR
PMR is a market research and consulting company active within over 25 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Since 1995 we have assisted more than 500 global corporations and many other regional companies to continuously increase their market share, successfully enter new territories and optimise costs.
We specialise in construction, retail, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, IT and telecommunications. However, our experience extends to many other industries. Our 100 in-house professionals fluently speak together more than 15 languages. In addition to our tailored research and business consulting projects we also publish annually almost 100 ready sector reports and information services.
