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More than nine out of ten companies are expecting a fall in revenue next year with Brexit being the largest factor in the decline, according to new research.

Research for analytics company MHR Analytics shows 93 per cent of survey respondents believing that revenue will come under pressure in 2019.

Nearly six out of ten of those surveyed (57 per cent) cited Brexit as triggering a drop in revenue while 22 per cent highlighted a fall in customer spending with 10 per cent of those polled saying that the introduction of the GDPR would hit their revenue.

Only seven per cent of respondents said no factor would trigger a drop in revenue.

The company polled 200 decision makers in large and medium-sized businesses in July about their investment plans for 2019.

The Brexit survey suggested that businesses were boosting investment in key areas to tackle the revenue drop, with IT coming top by a significant margin, suggesting tech spend is of huge importance to companies.

Of those polled 59 per cent of businesses said they will increase spend on IT in 2019, 48 per cent believe marketing will also see an increase and 46 per cent are planning to boost investment in sales.

When asked about the importance of data, 96 per cent of business leaders said they understood the importance of data for their company’s future.

However, one in 10 businesses are yet to implement big data strategies and less than a third regularly conduct big data projects.

Nick Felton, SVP at MHR Analytics said: “It’s clear that businesses are braced for significant turbulence next year and are planning major investment in key areas to power through an anticipated drop in revenues.

Despite these fears, companies are adopting a combative approach to this problem, with departments such as IT, marketing and sales all set for a cash injection.

“With unpredictable market conditions, data management and analytics are critical for helping organisations deliver significant cost savings by enabling accurate decision-making.

“Despite a potential revenue dip, companies are still planning major investments, of which data management is a good choice in uncertain times.

“Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of the decision makers we surveyed believe their company’s response to big data has been positive, yet only four per cent recognise that managing big data will lead to less administration.”