Ipsos Banner IT UK

Ipsos announces the results of Ipsos Banner IT UK 2001. This survey is the new edition of the BCRS which was carried out by The Banner Corporation plc since 1988.The objective of this UK syndicated survey is to provide the global technology industry with the best quality marketing information (Decision making process and Media consumption). Ipsos has followed the same objectives in France with its Ipsos IT France since 1982.

Due to the European concentration of the IT market, clients of studies in the UK and France urged Ipsos to combine both. Starting this year, Ipsos Banner IT UK has been partly redefined and entirely conducted by Ipsos.

Please find information on the methodology of this survey contained in the appendix to this press release.

The Ipsos Group is one of the top 10 market research companies in the world :

• 2000 Turnover : £ 193 million
  
• Established in 24 countries worldwide
  
• The largest media research company in Europe. The Ipsos Group participates in the National Readership Surveys in the 5 key European countries and is in a leading position in Business surveys. The Ipsos Group is the media research leader in the UK with Ipsos-RSL.

The size of the population involved in the IT decision-making process is 490,000. Those IT decision makers whose main area of work is IT total 217,000 and those whose main area of work is in other areas make up 273,000. A larger proportion of IT professionals (79%) are employed in establishments with 50+ employees, whereas 60% of non-IT professionals involved in the IT decision-making process are employed in establishments of less than 50 employees.

IT professionals are younger than non-IT professionals who are involved in the IT decision-making process. Indeed the majority of IT professionals (51.2%) are younger than 35 years old. The greatest number of non-IT professionals are aged 35 to 49. Principal areas of work for non-IT professionals are General Management (37.6%), Finance/Accounting (19.1%) and Administration/Legal (14.9%). In many cases, non-IT professionals who are involved in the IT decision-making process are necessarily of a senior position within the establishment.

Both IT and non-IT professionals are involved in specifying needs, selection of suppliers and initiating the purchasing process. However, non-IT professionals are more involved with price negotiations and in approving purchases. On the other hand, IT professionals are involved with installation of equipment or services and the selection of brands.

40% of IT decision makers are expecting their IT budget to remain the same in 2001. However, more than 36% expect it to grow, even against the background of a worldwide crisis in the IT sector. This observation is reinforced among the Establishments with 50+ Employees. Indeed, more than 42% of IT decision makers expect their IT budget to grow in those Establishments.

54 titles of Press are measured in the readership section. The readership is calculated in terms of Average Issue Readership (AIR).

Here are readership figures on the Total IT Decision Makers target, in 000’s and in %.

For the first time in this business survey, Ipsos has included measurement of IT web sites.

The majority of IT decision makers (89%) have access to the Internet at work. The leading IT web sites they visit are Zdnet.co.uk (15% reach) and Computer Weekly (9% reach).

Ipsos Banner IT-UK is integrated into a European perspective and has an equivalent in the French market : Ipsos IT-France. A common methodology enables the comparison of the IT markets in both countries for the first time.

The population of IT decision makers in France (457,500) is similar to that of the UK and the distributions of IT and non-IT professionals are close. This structure demonstrates how the UK and France are closed in the IT decision making process organization.

The IT Decision Makers profiles have some differences between the UK and France. French IT professionals are slightly older with 48.4% aged between 35 and 49. They are much more concentrated in the French capital with 41.5% of them living in Paris. The distribution by establishment size is similar between both countries.

Fiche technique :

Fieldwork
Fieldwork was carried out by Ipsos-RSL, the UK leader in media research.

2 waves:
- September-December 2000
- January-April 2001.

Methodological phases:

- Screening of 19,434 establishments- Direct phone contact and posting of a self-completion questionnaire to 5,277 eligible IT and non-IT professionals- Return of 2,024 analysable self-completion questionnaires.

High research standards have been applied:

- Direct phone contact with each IT decision maker before sending the self-completion questionnaire to confirm eligibility
- Use of mini-mastheads for better title identification
- Four rotations within the media list
- Readership defined by AIR : Average Issue Readership.