New research carried out by Altodigital has revealed that two-thirds (66%) of SMB IT executives admit that they have significant IT challenges within their business. In comparison, an overwhelming 97% of those IT bosses working in larger organisations indicated having ongoing issues, suggesting very different attitudes to technology between small and larger firms.

The research also explored the differing priorities of these two business types and found that ‘maintaining existing IT infrastructure’ was a top priority for 40% of corporates while 32% unsurprisingly outlining ‘security and compliance’ as a top concern. It was also interesting to note that 25% of respondents listed ‘finding skilled staff’ as a big worry.

In terms of SMB organisations, 26% of IT executives listed ‘security and compliance’ as a major concern while budgetary constraints was close behind with 23%, something that was scarcely acknowledged by corporate respondents.

The poll organised by the office technology solutions provider, Altodigital was formed of two individual studies, one that polled 100 IT decision makers from corporate UK companies with over 500 employees while the second survey included firms with less than 500 employees.

Alistair Millar, Group Marketing Manager at Altodigital said: “It is worrying that such a high proportion of SMB IT Executives feel they do not have any IT issues, because it is likely that they are missing a trick, especially when the issue or security and compliance is something that requires continual upgrades in technology.”

The survey also indicated cultural differences when it came to technology, with 58% of SMBs revealing that they simply didn’t see the need for a bring your own devices policy whereas 72% corporates listed it as a major concern. These contrasting opinions were also clear when it came to discussing print policies, an overwhelming 78% of SMB IT managers admitted that they had no policy in place while 57% of corporates said that they review their print strategy every year or less.

Within these results, a quarter of respondents in large firms said that their printing plan was reviewed more frequently than every six months and 15% reported once a year.

“It is very surprising to see that a large majority of SMBs fail to have a print policy in place because managed print services are widely known to provide benefits for both small and large enterprises. SMBs must consider what services might help improve business efficiency and productivity on a regular basis, this point is clearly understood by large corporations who regularly review operations such as their print strategy on a regular basis,” added Millar.