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By: James Christopher, Chief Operating Officer
This is our second post in our Growth Series for SMBs. A series of blog posts dedicated to providing our readers with information and ideas on the topic of growth for small to medium sized businesses. This posts focuses on the importance of establishing a core technical foundation for your business.
Why SMBs Need a Core Technical Foundation
Small and medium businesses need to be agile and flexible in order to compete in today’s fast changing and increasingly globalized business environment. Traditional manufacturing, sourcing, marketing and distribution models are all being upended by trends such as outsourcing, e-commerce, just-in-time distribution and lean manufacturing.
SMBs that are most likely to succeed and grow in today’s environment are those that are not only able to respond to these changes but are able to take advantage of them. Having a strong and strategically planned technology foundation is fundamental to achieving this goal.
Investment in I.T is Just as Important
Many SMBs tend to wrongly assume that the limited size and scale of their operation doesn’t justify proper investments in information and communications technology. It is common to find SMBs viewing technology as little more than a cost of doing business, rather than as a critical enabler of increased revenues and new business opportunities.
According to a report by Framingham, Mass.-based research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), often when SMBs make technology investments, they tend to spend tactically, and on point products, such as adding or upgrading PCs or on boosting network security components.
Few are interested in making strategic, long-term infrastructure investments such as those aimed at boosting network, communications and storage capabilities. That could be a mistake.
Do You Have a Vision?
Small and medium enterprises that have a strategic vision and a plan for fulfilling it can benefit tremendously from technology adoption. The experience of large enterprises over the last few decades has conclusively proven that well-planned technology investments can result in improved business efficiencies and productivity in areas such as manufacturing, finance, communications, distribution and logistics management.
New Trends are Making it Easier and Providing More Options
Emerging trends such as cloud computing, virtualization and software as a service (SaaS) are also making it more economical than ever for SMBs to harness information technologies to grow their business. Meanwhile, the ubiquity of the Internet, and the growing use of social media tools are allowing SMBs to reach out to new customers, improve support services and tap new business opportunities at far lower cost than possible previously.
SMBs are Getting the Message
A study released this April by CompTIA, a global IT trade body, reveals that a growing number of SMBs may finally be getting the message. After a lull in technology spending over the last few years, a vast majority of U.S. based small businesses are looking for products and services that can help them reduce operational costs and boost efficiencies.
We think this is the case in Canada as well. In fact, we worked with a local company in helping them upgrade their technology foundation which yielded some significant bottom line and productivity results.
According to CompTIA, 71% of those surveyed said they would be willing to pay a premium for technologies with a proven ROI, including virtualization, mobile applications and unified communications as well as managed services.
Keys to Success
In order to build a solid technology foundation though, SMBs need to first have a thorough understanding of their strategic goals, the technology components that are needed to build that foundation and the ability to implement and manage it.
According to a Microsoft analysis of technology adoption by SMBs, often many companies get overwhelmed by costs and complexity because of a failure to truly appreciate what’s involved in building out a solid technology foundation. For example, SMBs sometimes tend to focus too much on price and end up procuring technology that is inadequate for their purposes. They often have a less than perfect understanding of their needs or the gaps that might exist in their existing technology portfolio. There are ways to tackle this problem ahead of time though by assessing your business and needs ahead of time.
Importantly, according to Microsoft, many tend to also assume that they can absorb and manage large technology investments all by themselves. Often, SMBs tend to overlook basic issues such as the need to constantly maintain and upgrade their hardware and software or to have adequate security tools for protecting their data assets.
Such issues can, and often do result in failed technology projects and unnecessary cost. Importantly, such issues can also divert the attention of a company away from its core competency and erode any benefit that a technology foundation might have otherwise provided. This is why Jump I.T. is offering a complimentary business assessment. To help you better plan to use technology to help your business be successful.
We hope you get value from this blog series and welcome your comments. Contact us if you’re interested in our complimentary assessment.