'Downturn? What downturn?' say SMEs

While the credit crunch has claimed banks and thousands of technology jobs, the UK small and medium businesses are optimistic about their tech fortunes over the coming year.

According to a survey of SMEs across the UK, US and Canada by skills body CompTIA, over half of UK small businesses expect they will increase their spending on technology and telecoms over the next 12 months – a two per cent rise on 2007 figures.

The mood was less upbeat in the US and Canada, where the percentage of companies expecting to up their IT spend in the coming year fell by 12 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

While UK small businesses may be expecting an increased IT budget, they're intending to spend it cautiously: 58 per cent of small businesses will only buy kit from vendors they already use.

The lion's share of the budget will go to security, including encryption and firewalls technology the survey found.

Why the increased spend? It seems one driver could be predicted growth among small businesses, with 40 per cent of SMEs planning to open up to five new locations and 54 per cent saying they expect to see revenue growth of over 10 per cent in the coming year.