Additionally, despite the difficult job market, 18 percent of the survey respondents admitted they have actually wanted to quit their jobs because of frustration with software programs.

These and other results are from a new survey sponsored by TrackVia, makers of a highly flexible platform that allows non-technical business users to easily design and build their own applications.

“If you’ve ever asked yourself, ‘Why can’t this software or application just do what I need it to do?’ then you know the frustration that this survey seems to tap into,” said Pete Khanna, CEO of TrackVia. “This information also highlights the disconnect that often occurs between the people designing or buying software and the people using it. Clearly, this divide comes at a significant cost in terms of usability and productivity for the people who use company-provided software every day.”

Additional survey findings further suggest there is room to enhance the ease of use and customization of software used at work:

– Sixty-one percent of the workers surveyed agreed that — if they knew how to design software — they could design better, user-friendlier and more productive programs than what they are currently using.

– If they could build their own software to do their daily work, important motivations for building better software included saving time (74 percent), reducing frustration and stress (63 percent), and enhancing work quality (62 percent).

– When asked how much time in an average month is wasted because of software problems or flaws, or because the software they use doesn’t fit their unique needs, only nine percent selected “none / my current software helps me work as productively as possible.” On the other end of the spectrum, five percent indicated more than 10 hours per month were wasted. More than one-in-five (22 percent) believe four to 10 hours were wasted, and 29 percent felt that one to three hours were wasted.

The IT Hiring Index and Skills Report is based on telephone interviews with more than 1,400 CIOs from companies across the United States with 100 or more employees. Executives are asked whether their companies plan to increase or decrease the number of full-time IT personnel on their staff during the coming quarter. The survey is conducted by an independent research firm and developed by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of IT professionals on a project and full-time basis. Robert Half has been tracking IT hiring activity in the United States since 1995.

Key Findings

The net 10 percent increase in anticipated IT hiring activity is up four points from a net 6 percent increase in hiring activity projected last quarter.

Networking and IT security professionals are in greatest demand, according to survey respondents.
Almost three quarters (73 percent) of CIOs said it’s challenging to find skilled professionals today, up seven points from the previous quarter.

Eight-eight percent of CIOs are confident in their companies’ growth prospects in the next three months.

Eighty-three percent of technology executives expressed confidence in their firms’ first-quarter investment in IT projects, rating the possibility of IT investment a 3 or higher on a five point scale, with 5 being most confident.

“The employment market for IT professionals has become more active, with many professionals looking for new opportunities,” said John Reed, executive director of Robert Half Technology. “The new year, especially, can be a time of transition as companies staff up and IT professionals take stock of their careers.”

Confidence in Business Growth and IT Investments
Eighty-eight percent of CIOs reported being at least somewhat confident in their companies’ prospects for growth in the first quarter of 2012; 42 percent rated the probability of investing in IT projects a 4 or higher on a 5-point scale, with 5 being the most confident.

Skills in Demand
The functional areas in which executives say they are experiencing the greatest challenge in finding skilled IT professionals are networking (20 percent) and IT security (19 percent). Applications development, data/database management and help desk/technical support followed, cited by 15 percent, 11 percent and 10 percent of survey respondents, respectively.

Network administration remains the skill set in greatest demand, cited by 57 percent of CIOs. Windows administration and desktop support were next, each with 56 percent of the response.

Regional Outlook
CIOs in the West South Central area of the country plan the most IT hiring in the first quarter with a net 23 percent of executives anticipating adding IT staff.

Industries Hiring
Executives in the retail industry expect the most IT hiring in the first quarter. A net 17 percent of CIOs in this sector plan to expand their IT departments. This was followed by the business services industry with a net 16 percent of technology leaders anticipating hiring increases. Manufacturing was next, with a net 11 percent of executives in these industries planning to add staff.

This suggests a strong shift in consumer expectations regarding service quality and changing habits in online shopping – making way for a mobile commerce boom and the need for service providers to step up to the plate and offer services to match, while coping with fluctuating seasonal demands.

“Mobile commerce is nothing new, but with the advent of the tablet and continuing sales for smartphones, 2012 will bring a seismic shift in consumer demand to shop anytime, anywhere, with no decline in service quality and download speeds – placing huge pressure on service provider networks to deliver,” said Manu Bonnassie, Regional Director – Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMA) at Brocade.

The research found that 13 percent of consumers will only wait a maximum of five seconds for a retailer’s web page to load before giving up, showing an increasing consumer trend towards demand for speed and uninterrupted service when shopping online. With the majority of people spending more time shopping online over the festive period (19 percent spending twice as much time as usual) and the growing trend for shopping ”on the go”, retailers are facing increasing pressure to ensure that their networks stand up to heavily fluctuating seasonal demands.

Bonnassie continued: “While consumers are put off by slow connection speeds, our research indicates that growth of online shopping is very much dependent on the ability of retailers to provide quality services. According to Gartner, there were 17 million tablet computers shipped in 2010, a figure set to hit 326 million in 2015. That alone should be sounding alarm bells for retailers. With over a third of people claiming to already own a tablet computer, and a further 22 percent intending to bring one into the home or give one as a gift at Christmas, the trade-off between providing a consistent service throughout the year and being able to handle the extra capacity and bandwidth required during the biggest shopping months of the year, is a huge challenge for retailers.”

Other key findings included:

Of respondents that will be purchasing a smartphone or tablet computer in time for Christmas, or as a gift for a member of the family or friend, 38 percent will be used for work purposes. A reflection of the increasing trend of using personal devices in the workplace – Bring Your Own Device or BYOD – employers could expect four in every 10 employees to bring a new device onto the corporate network in January 2012;

Three quarters of people and almost 37 percent already own a smartphone or a tablet respectively;

Almost 70 percent of people claim that their place of work will close for at least the bank holidays over the Christmas period. With 81 percent of people staying home over the festive time, that means a drastic increase in leisure time, with over half of us streaming TV and movies from the Internet and a shade under 58 percent using bandwidth-hungry communications tools such as Skype to talk to friends and family.

Bonnassie added: “With seasonal peaks and troughs in demand, it is a challenge for providers to ensure that they are satisfying high expectations from consumers, but also not wasting capacity in low periods. Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) style networks are set to be key to tackling this issue, as providers only use what they need, when they need it.”

Many [businesses] are leveraging Cloud-based business models, delivering high performance networking foundations to deliver consumer services, but are now beginning to look at new procurement strategies to create on-premise architectures.

Bonnassie commented: “Our ‘The Data Center Is Here’ corporate campaign highlights how modern networks need to extend across physical boundaries and enable a common user experience wherever data is accessed, and with the recently launched Brocade Network Subscription service we are now offering of an innovative, subscription-based acquisition option for network infrastructure that allows organizations to align network capacity with fluctuating business demands. Therefore it’s important that the retail industry and service providers ensure they don’t miss this opportunity to prosper.”

In this type of always-on business environment, the Brocade portfolio of high-performance, scalable, cloud-optimized networking solutions offer service providers and businesses the confidence to meet the demands of the modern consumer. These solutions deliver on the Brocade One™ strategy of helping organizations deliver information and applications anywhere at any time. In addition, this strategy is designed to help organizations reduce both complexity and costs while extending data center assets and services to mobile users around the world.

The Manta SMB Wellness Index is a quarterly index on the state of small business released by Manta, the largest online community dedicated entirely to small business. The index examines nationwide data collected from multiple business resources and takes a “pulse” of small business owners on hot topics. Manta’s latest survey polled more than 1,000 small business owners about their feelings on the 2011 small business landscape, predictions for 2012 and how their business is impacting their personal well being.

The Manta SMB Wellness Index shows that while new business activity is up year over year, September saw the steepest decline in activity in the past year and half. Moreover, there’s been about a 12.5 percent decrease in new business activity in Q3 compared to Q2. Alaska, Utah and Oregon had the sharpest declines in activity year over year, while Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona had the biggest boost in business activity in Q3, as well as the most gains year over year.

“Thanks to the support from our customers and online tools like Manta that help us reach new markets, we’ve had a successful 2011,” said Sherry Sheppard, owner of i love cupcakes, LLC, based in Largo, FL. “As a small business specializing in a niche industry–gourmet cupcakes–we know that both our community and online tools have helped us leverage innovative ways to reach people, which prove to be critical components for our continued success.”

But that success has come with a price for many small business owners. Almost half of respondents (44 percent) say this year’s business climate has taken a toll on their personal health–one in three say they work out less, 22 percent say they’ve gained weight and 14 percent say they are more short-tempered and argue with family and co-workers. In addition, Manta’s survey found that most small business owners (63 percent) averaged more than 40 hours a week at work, while nearly 1 in 10 report their average work week was upwards of 70 hours.

Luckily, life away from the office has been brighter for small business owners this year; 45 percent say their business has had a positive impact on their personal life. Small business owners say they’re happier (31 percent), have more time for family and friends (15 percent) and even report that their marriages have improved (eight percent).

“Small businesses are the lifeblood of the national economy, and while things have been difficult in 2011, we see every day that small business owners are committed and hard-working and don’t take no for an answer,” said Pamela Springer, president and CEO of Manta. “In fact, our survey shows that 90 percent of small business owners are optimistic about their company’s growth in 2012. Manta is focused on providing small business owners the resources they need to connect, reach new customers and continue their success this year and beyond.”

Looking ahead, 70 percent of respondents think the small business economy will improve next year. That’s not surprising, since a majority of small business owners (62 percent) rank growing their business as their top New Year’s resolution– ahead of improving relationships with their family, working out more and eating healthier.

Possibly more telling, 29 percent said they have stopped shopping at a specific retail store because of a bad shopping experience, and nearly a quarter have done the same with online retail sites. The primary factor for avoiding certain brick-and-mortar retail stores is unhelpful/unfriendly sales personnel (71 percent), followed by long lines or long wait time (41 percent), and quality issues with merchandise (39 percent). The main reasons shoppers cited for no longer returning to a shopping website were quality issues with the merchandise or damaged merchandise (46 percent), high shipping costs (43 percent) and shipping problems (37 percent).

What’s more, 84 percent of respondents said that they read reviews posted online by other consumers before purchasing a product, signaling the trend that social channels are increasingly influencing purchase decisions.

“The retailers who capture and analyze feedback from their customers to understand the drivers of a good shopping experience will reap the rewards this holiday shopping season,” said Greg Marek, Vice President of Corporate Marketing at MarketTools, Inc. “With many retailers counting on the holiday shopping season to bring in a sizeable percentage of their annual sales, it is critical that they obtain the customer feedback necessary to provide an enjoyable shopping experience, and ultimately increase sales through repeat business and referrals.”

Additional highlights from the MarketTools study include:

- When shopping at a particular store, the most important factors to consumers are: good prices (75 percent), quality and availability of merchandise (64 percent), and return/exchange policies (46 percent).

- When shopping at a particular website, the results are very similar, with ease of use also a factor: good prices (70 percent), quality and availability of merchandise (67 percent) and the site’s ease of navigation (55 percent).

- 6 percent of those surveyed plan to do 100 percent of their holiday shopping online, with more than half (56 percent) planning to do at least half of their holiday shopping online.

- 12 percent of respondents have posted comments about their shopping experience (either good or bad) on Facebook and/or Twitter.