Almost half (47 per cent) of IT teams in large and medium-sized firms are using temporary staff to cope with the “sizeable workload” caused by COVID-19 and remote working, shows research.

Business software provider Zoho commissioned research among 200 decision-makers at companies, which revealed that over two-thirds (70 per cent) of businesses are also planning to outsource key IT functions in 2021, in an effort to “cut costs” during the pandemic.

But despite cost-cutting initiatives, 51 per cent of businesses admitted their IT budget is scheduled to increase next year, in an effort to cope with continued remote working during COVID-19 “and beyond”.

When looking at where this budget will be spent, beyond outsourcing IT, the research found 69 per cent of businesses are investing in an up-skilling programme for staff, to better train them to use remote working apps, collaboration tools and other IT throughout the new year.

In addition, 82 per cent of firms revealed plans to increase the use of workplace applications to enable more efficient remote working for staff due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Sridhar Iyengar, managing director of Zoho Europe, said: “COVID-19 and remote working has placed unprecedented demand and pressure on UK IT teams as businesses rushed to install and maintain remote working software and cloud infrastructure.

“Beyond the pandemic we are likely to see many businesses maintain a remote or at least ‘hybrid’ working structure for the indefinite future.

“Therefore it’s imperative to equip IT teams with better long-term solutions to address surging demand for their services - this includes a scalable suite of SaaS applications that are designed to cope with remote working,” said Iyengar.

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