“How’s work?”
That’s a question often answered with an automatic, “Good.” However, Summit wanted to dig deeper than that. In honor of our 25 years of being in business, we sent out a workplace-focused survey asking IT professionals about their experience on the job. We focused on these topics:
- Role in the workplace
- Top priorities when working with a vendor
- Biggest pain points at work
We were fortunate to receive an excellent sample size, gathering insight from more than 1,000 IT professionals all over the country. To the 1,041 respondents, we thank you greatly for your time and input. These insights help Summit understand what IT professionals want and allow us to better serve you.
1. Job titles
Before we could delve into what makes IT professionals tick, we wanted to know what role each respondent takes on at work.
Key takeaways:
- IT directors and managers accounted for a majority of the participants, just under 50%.
- “Other” responses included network architect, IT supervisor, and technology coordinator.
- Respondents worked in a variety of industries, most commonly healthcare, technology, education, and financial services.
2. What is most important when dealing with an IT hardware provider?
Working with outside vendors is a part of many IT professionals’ day-to-day operations. We were curious to find out what they really wanted from their IT providers.
Key takeaways:
- Cost and ease of doing business are clearly the winners of most important considerations when working with an IT vendor.
- The factor of cost is so important, 100% of company presidents who took our survey listed it as a top priority.
- The most common “other” response was overwhelmingly related to product knowledge. (Test your own product knowledge here.)
- Customer service actually trumps the Internet – 30% more respondents prefer dedicated salespeople to an online store option.
3. What are the most common problems you encounter at work?
In order to understand the full scope of IT pros’ workplace experience, we also had to research their most pressing pain points.
Key takeaways:
- It’s all about the budget. A vast majority of participants – nearly two-thirds – are dissatisfied with the budget they’ve been given.
- One in every four IT pros in a team meeting aren’t too happy with the communication taking place. Check out 5 simple ways to improve team communication so that every meeting can run at optimal performance.
- 40% of CIOs listed a poor vendor experience as a top workplace issue.
Related Post: What Matters in a Tech Vendor?
Final analysis:
Clearly, cost is top of mind when working with an IT provider, and budget takes the cake as the biggest struggle in the workplace. In addition, with so much of our world going virtual, it was a breath of fresh air to discover that most IT pros would rather work with a human vendor than go through online means.
In addition to these workplace-specific results, our survey also pinpoints what manufacturers are most-used in the industry right now. Check out the infographics in our post, The Go-To Manufacturers of IT Pros.
