A quarter of UK companies have been forced by economic circumstances to put all of their enterprise software deployments, including ERP projects, ‘on hold’, according to a survey conducted by IT body the National Computing Centre.

And of the companies surveyed, the majority of which fell into the £100 million to £1 billion annual turnover range, 41% had put some projects on hold due to the current economic climate.

Only 6% of respondents said they have increased investment in applications as a result of economic pressures, while 29% said there had been no impact.

However, many companies do expect to increase their investments in applications in the next year, with 47% planning enhancements or upgrades to their existing applications, and 24% considering new applications.

When asked whether their enterprise software fulfilled the organisation’s requirement, 47% claimed that it had met the majority of requirements, while 41% said projects fulfilled requirements partially. An unhappy 12% said that such software fulfils only a few of the organisation’s requirements.