In 2003 and 2005, nFold completed comprehensive software surveys focused on business needs, financial implications, software selection and vendor evaluation. After surveying the IT managers mainly mid-sized companies, nFold can comment with authority on the software trends in Gauteng. IT managers are offered an individual benchmark report comparing their use of software to other companies in the same industry. The key themes explored by the survey were:

• How does your industry measure up?
  - individual or combined benchmarks comparing the use of software
  
  
• Software Trends in Mid-Sized Companies
  - future scenarios based on changing software priorities
  
  
• How do IT Vendors perform?
  - suggestions from customers on how IT vendors could improve their service
  
  
• Profile of an IT Manager
  - how does the average IT manager structure budgets and what are their priorities?

The next survey will be conducted in 2006 . nFold has formed a joint venture with World Wide Worx to conduct the research in 2006 while ITWeb remains interested in preferential media coverage of the results. The credibility of Arthur Goldstuck and his company World Wide Worx as research and IT strategy specialists, brings a whole new flavour to the research and nFold looks forward to working on this project with such a master of the art. The nature of the joint venture is such that we will be conducting the research anyway, but hope to attract one or more sponsors to the idea so that we can elevate the scale of the project beyond its current levels. We hope to get roughly 1000 responses, made up of personal interviews with roughly 100 corporate and 400 mid-sized (50-500 employees) companies, and telephonic interviews of 500 small companies.

If you are interested in participating or would like to know more about the results of the latest survey, contact sandy@nfold.com.