industry research
October 14, 2026 | 22 min
The Cost of Running Out of Support: What End-of-Life Systems Actually Do to an IT Bill and a Risk Profile
A research report on what end-of-support systems cost. It works through Microsoft's published Windows 10 Extended Security Updates price, doubling and cumulative-purchase rules, the costs that never appear on a renewal quote, named end-of-life entries in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue, what Singapore's Cyber Essentials mark says about end-of-support assets, and how to choose between refreshing, extending and running a system out. The Year Two and Year Three figures are the author's arithmetic from Microsoft's rule, and observations about client estates are Brocent's own and labelled as such.
October 13, 2026 | 23 min
Your IT Provider Is Part of Your Attack Surface: Third-Party Cyber Risk From Both Sides of the Contract
A research report on third-party cyber risk when the third party is your IT provider. It sets out what the joint CISA/NSA/FBI advisory AA22-131A tells buyers and providers to do, what Verizon's 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report measures about third-party involvement in breaches, how the US SEC disclosure rules raise the stakes for notification terms, and what a buyer should put in the contract rather than the questionnaire. Observations about buyer questions in Hong Kong and Singapore are Brocent's own and are labelled as such.
October 07, 2026 | 22 min
The Hidden Operating Cost of IT Sprawl: When Apps, Devices, and Vendors Multiply Faster Than Headcount
A research report on the operating cost of IT sprawl for companies of 30 to 300 people. It explains why that cost scales with people multiplied by systems rather than with the software invoice, sets out what Zylo's 2026 SaaS Management Index, Productiv's State of SaaS series and Flexera's 2026 State of ITAM report actually measure and where, and gives a practical inventory-and-reduction framework. Observations about Hong Kong and Singapore clients are Brocent's own and are labelled as such.
October 01, 2026 | 20 min
Delivering IT in Mainland China Without a Local Entity: Hardware Routes, Partner Structure, and What Changed in 2026
A research briefing for overseas and Hong Kong IT prime contractors — and the multinationals that buy from them — that have to deliver onsite IT in mainland China without a local entity. It explains the four exposures an informal partner arrangement creates, walks through the customs routes that actually fit IT hardware (ATA Carnet, temporary entry 2600, repair goods 1300, free-of-charge goods 3339, no-cost replacement 3100, and a third-party importer of record), sets out the four documents that make the partner relationship legible, and corrects three claims still circulating: there is no customs code 1318, the postal limit from Hong Kong is RMB 800, and since 1 January 2026 free services are no longer a deemed VAT sale.
September 30, 2026 | 23 min
The MSP Consolidation Wave: What Private-Equity Roll-Ups Mean for IT Buyers in the US, Hong Kong, and Singapore
A research report on provider-side consolidation in managed IT services, written for the buyer instead of the seller. It sets out what is actually documented about private-equity-backed MSP acquisitions in the United States, states plainly that no comparable record exists for Hong Kong or Singapore, and declines to extrapolate one market onto the other. Market figures are attributed to Omdia, Channel Dive, Service Leadership and company press releases; what happens to clients after an acquisition is Brocent's own qualitative observation and is labelled as such. It closes with the ownership questions and contract clauses a buyer can raise before signing a multi-year agreement.
September 23, 2026 | 20 min
The True Cost of an IT Hire: Wage, Statutory On-Costs, and Coverage Economics in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States
A labour-economics report for anyone budgeting an IT team across Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States. It asks what one IT employee actually costs an employer once statutory on-costs and coverage economics are counted, and why that number resolves so differently in three markets that look comparable on a salary table. Built on MPFA, CPF Board, MOM, Hong Kong C&SD, US BLS, SSA, IRS and KFF figures confirmed at the time of writing, with every assumption disclosed and every excluded cost named. It deliberately does not answer whether to hire or outsource — that comparison is already published, per market, and is linked instead.
September 19, 2026 | 17 min
Who Withholds the Tax on Your Engineer in Shanghai? China's New VAT Measures and the Contractor Delivery Model
A policy briefing for global IT prime contractors and the enterprises that buy from them. China's Administrative Measures for the Withholding and Remittance of VAT on Natural Persons take effect on 1 November 2026 and move the collection point from the individual to the domestic entity that pays them — with monthly filing, identity record-keeping, and a filing obligation even in months when no tax is due. This report reads the fifteen articles, explains why a delivery model built on freelancers paid from offshore now leaves a visible gap where a monthly record should be, separates the exposure that belongs to the prime contractor from the exposure that belongs to the client, and supplies a nine-question due-diligence checklist you can send to a provider tomorrow.
September 16, 2026 | 23 min
The Rising Cost of Cybersecurity Incidents: What It Means for IT Service Providers and the Companies That Hire Them
A research report on the economics of cybersecurity incident cost: why the headline breach-cost figure and the average insurance claim differ by two orders of magnitude and both are correct, what Hong Kong and Singapore's own published data does and does not contain, why cyber premiums are falling while breach costs rise, and how to budget security into an IT decision without quoting the wrong population's number.
September 09, 2026 | 22 min
What IT Spend Actually Does to a Growing Company's Operating Margin
A research report on the relationship between IT spend and operating margin in a growing company: why the macro IT-spending headline describes a market you are not buying in, why the authoritative percentage-of-revenue benchmark is paywalled, where IT cost actually lands in a P&L, what the under-investment and over-investment traps look like in practice, and a stage-by-stage framework for right-sizing IT spend.
September 02, 2026 | 21 min
The Managed IT Service Provider Landscape in Hong Kong and Singapore (2026)
A research report on the managed IT service provider market in Hong Kong and Singapore: why no authoritative count of providers exists in either market, what the two most-cited industry studies actually measure (and where they were measured), the four provider types a growing company genuinely encounters, the differentiators that survive contact with a real contract, and a step-by-step buyer's evaluation framework.
August 28, 2026 | 22 min
Why Hong Kong Companies Are Bundling MSP, MSSP, and HKMA/C-RAF Support Into One Contract
A research report on why Hong Kong companies — especially HKMA-regulated authorized institutions and their vendors — are bundling managed IT (MSP), managed security (MSSP), and HKMA cybersecurity/C-RAF regulatory support into a single RFP, what C-RAF's three components actually require, and where a vendor's honest role ends and the institution's own non-delegable regulatory accountability begins.
August 26, 2026 | 23 min
China Employment Law for Foreign-Invested Enterprises: What IT and Ops Leaders Actually Need to Know
A research report on the employment-law exposure a foreign-invested enterprise carries when it employs its own IT staff in mainland China — the September 2025 judicial interpretation, non-competes and trade secrets for technical staff, and what actually has to happen when a systems administrator leaves.
August 21, 2026 | 23 min
Managed IT Services Pricing Benchmarks: Hong Kong, China, and Singapore (2026)
A research report on what managed IT services actually cost per user per month in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Singapore — built on published, market-specific rate card data, with every source named and every evidence gap flagged rather than filled.