The UK’s healthcare sector is set to increase investment in cloud computing technologies by 7.7% over the next two years, more than any other technology.
Analysis form Kable reveals that cloud computing, which is today used by just over half of health organisations (53.8%), will be considered for investment by 61.5%.
When investing in IT, the main objective influencing IT investment strategies in the UK’s healthcare sector is cutting costs, according to the firm.
Still, the most used technologies in the healthcare space are security products with 92.3% of respondents currently using solutions of this nature. Over the next two years, 69.2% of those surveyed said they consider investing in this area.
Security products are followed by enterprise applications, BI, security services, IT systems management and communication and collaboration technologies all in use by 84.6% of respondents.
Interestingly, over the next two years just like with security products, 69.2% of health organisations will consider IT systems management and security services as their top investment priority.
Content management technologies, which are today used by 76.9% of those taking part in the survey, will only be consider for investment by 46.2% of organisations over the next two years.
The remaining used technologies include mobility solutions, green IT and virtualisation and network services. All are used by 69.2% of respondents, and all will be considered for investment by 61.5%.
Further analysis revealed that infrastructure is today the most outsourced IT function with 53.8% of respondents saying they follow this route, and 15.4% revealing they are considering to outsource infrastructure in the next two years.
The second most outsourced IT functions are applications, and service desk support and help desk (both 38.5%). 23.1% of respondents said they do not currently outsource service support and help desk functions, but are considering it. 15.4% are considering outsourcing applications in the next 24 months.
Management functions are the least outsourced (only by 30.8%), and only 15.4% are considering outsourcing these. 53.8% said they are not and they will not outsource management functions for at least another two years.
According to Kable, when ranking business objectives from 1 to 4 points (being 4 ‘top priority’), the majority of respondents attributed 3 points to cutting down IT costs.
This is followed by increasing customer satisfaction (2.9), achieving or maintaining regulatory compliance (2.7) and increasing revenues (2.7).
Raising efficiency (2.5) and improving supplier relationships (2.2) rank as the lowest business objectives influencing IT investment strategies.
All figures come from Kable’s ICT Customer Insight survey, which polled 2685 respondents, from across the UK in Q4 2014. The survey findings include data on IT functions that are outsourced now, or which may be outsourced in the next two years, technologies currently in use and those that are prioritised for investment in the next two years, and the importance of various business objectives in influencing IT investment strategies. Subscribe to Kable here.
