Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are expected to loosen restricted information technology (IT) budgets, take to social networking, increase adoption of "software as a service" (SaaS) and mobile applications, as lessons learnt after the recession.
According to a recent report by AMI Partners, a market consulting firm specialising in IT, internet and telecom, SMEs showed signs of releasing pent-up ICT demand in the fourth quarter of 2009. As of now, SMEs will tentatively transition out of survival mode and focus on opportunities for business expansion. Technology that facilitates this shift will be much more of a priority in the coming year, the report said.
Going forward, SMEs are looking to enhance existing customer relationships, improve business efficiencies, and thereby increase revenues. From a small enterprise perspective, this equates to increased use of collaborative tools, improved networking and implementing disaster recovery plans.
Big smile for small businesses
Medium enterprises are also focused on more effective collaboration among employees. However, this will come in the form of more enterprise IT solutions such as customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and server virtualisation. Larger firms will also invest in overdue security and storage upgrades.
AMI is also of the opinion that social media will move beyond its primary role as a promotional tool into the more strategic role of business intelligence in 2010. Growing numbers of SMEs will begin using social media to monitor, measure, and manage their image at the brand, product and services levels.
Budget 2010: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
Enterprises will continue to adopt digital marketing media (like, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, email marketing, blogs, forums, and others) to reach customers. And as usage of social media grows, so will the advantages and opportunities for SMEs to capture valuable competitive feedback.
Although the number of SMEs using social media as a source for business intelligence is small, it will grow significantly in 2010 as the value of the tool becomes more obvious.
In 2010 SMEs will continue to find new ways to gain visibility in day-to-day operations in a non-technical, non-IT assisted manner. Business intelligence (BI) has been traditionally under-utilised by SMEs, in comparison with large enterprises.
With massive amount of data assets lying around in these smaller companies, organisations are realising that they can use existing data resources better to gain a clear line of sight into their businesses and customers for timely decision-making. BI tools are now being used by SMEs to focus more on business growth and results, and not just internal efficiency and cost control.
To gain SMEs' wallet share, SME vendors will have to ensure that their offerings leverage the power of these "social conversations" and provide useful marketing and decision-making insights. As a result of the economic downturn, business decision-makers (BDMs) are much more involved in the purchase process of ICT.
SMEs will require stronger justification for ICT purchases, and in a language BDMs can directly translate into bottom line results. Phrases such as "save time" and "save money" will need to be heavily supported with hard numbers and proof of outcome.
AMI also point out that cloud computing solutions will struggle to capitalise on the full market opportunity presented in 2010. Adoption will continue to climb in 2010 (as well as interest), but 'software as a service' (SaaS) marketers will need to reduce confusion, misinformation and apprehension in order to convert interest into actual purchases.
Again, 2010 will continue to see accelerated adoption and mainstreaming of key technologies like cloud computing and virtualisation, as cost savings, operational efficiency and IT disaster recovery are key business drivers. However, marketers will struggle to fully address the growing interest in SaaS and virtual infrastructure solutions, due to the amount of confusion in the value proposition and offerings that exist in the minds of SMEs.
