Easing Clients' Pain

If one of your goals for 2017 is to improve at easing your customers' pain, focus on security and the cloud, according to the results of new research by solution provider Intermedia.

In its inaugural IT Confidence Index, pinpointing what it calls the biggest challenges across business IT functions, Intermedia – No. 188 on CRN's Solution Provider 500 list - said security threats such as ransomware, and concerns over IT infrastructure spending were two concerns undermining the confidence of corporate IT directors.

Intermedia surveyed 350 corporate IT decision makers in the U.S.

But confidence among IT leaders in small businesses – those with fewer than 50 employees – appears lower, which provided an opening for managed service providers, according to the results. Confidence among the entire survey base registered a 7.2 on a scale of 1 (not confident) to 10 (extremely confident), which Intermedia calls "worrisome." But among small businesses, confidence registered lower - 5.9.

Here are six noteworthy results from the survey.