Eighty-seven percent of mid-market IT staff forced to work nights, weekends and holidays
King Research study of IT staff managing total of 760,000 computers shows Fortune 100,000 and large enterprise IT staff burdened with overtime
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - July 10, 2006 - KACE™, the leader in IT management solutions for Fortune 100,000 organizations, today announced the results of research by leading high-tech and enterprise computing market research firm King Research that reveals IT professionals are still forced to work outside of regular business hours to execute routine IT tasks -- only 13% of IT staff in mid-size companies are able to avoid working evenings, weekends and holidays, compared to 20% at large companies and 34% at small companies. "Corporate IT departments spend significant time and resources managing their server and desktop computers. Many of these tasks -- patch management, inventory, new machine deployment, and many others -- can be time-consuming and expensive" said Diane Hagglund of King Research. "Vendors such as KACE address key challenges by bringing IT automation at an affordable cost to small to mid sized organizations."
In Fortune 100,000 companies, automation efforts are underway but have not yet been deployed to the full range of repetitive automation-capable IT processes, including patch management, software/hardware inventory, software distribution, security enforcement, helpdesk ticket management and new machine deployment. Nineteen percent of participants in mid market space have essentially no IT automation, and for any given IT task, only half of the companies in this space automate the task.
The report found that while larger companies are automating their routine IT processes at a much higher rate (82%) than companies in the Fortune 100,000 (54%), only 29% of smaller companies automate these kinds of tasks.
IT professionals using automation for IT processes reported a preference for commercial tools over internally developed tools and/or scripts. By far the greatest complaint regarding automation tools had to do with their cost. Other concerns included lack of management support to acquire and use them, and having no time to evaluate or use available tools as common challenges to using them.
"King's independent research confirmed what KACE customers already know -- that finding an innovative, reliable, cost effective IT automation tool can help save thousands of person hours and dollars," said Rob Meinhardt, CEO of KACE. "That's why we created KBOX™ by KACE, the leading appliance-based IT automation solution in the Fortune 100,000 today."
King also researched IT server appliances -- the IT solution that bundles software on server hardware from a single vendor. Sixty-two percent owned or planned to purchase an appliance, and all respondents identified ease of maintenance and speed of deployment as among the most compelling potential benefits of using an IT appliance. Expectation of benefits was found to be in line with actual benefits appliances delivered.
This research is based on a survey of professionals representing a variety of IT responsibilities conducted by King Research in June 2006. The report is now available at http://www.kace.com/infocenter.
About KACE and KBOX™ by KACE
KACE, a privately-held technology company, is the leader in IT automation appliances. The KBOX™ by KACE product line delivers easy-to-use, comprehensive IT automation appliances that are affordable and really work. KACE is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has offices in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Chicago, Illinois. To learn more about KACE and its product offerings, please visit www.kace.com or call 1-888-522-3638.