A study by International Data Corporation (IDC) highlights horizontal solutions adoption and future investment plans across Western European SMBs.
The study found that:
* The level of adoption with respect to six solutions (ERP, CRM, unified communications, BI and analytics, content management, and storage technologies) is quite good: when compared to the previous survey, the six technologies were adopted in the same order of importance, with storage topping the list and unified communications closing it. However, all the values were significantly lower.
* In more detail, storage solutions are today placed in more than three out of four interviewed SMBs, while the other solutions are adopted by around half of the companies in 20 – 499 employee size class.
* IT solution adoption, generally speaking, tends to increase as the company dimension increases with minor exceptions, confirming that smaller companies continue to have less resources to dedicate to IT and also that they are less knowledgeable with respect to IT advantages.
* Moreover, also future investment plans are good, beating the previous survey’s data across the six technologies. All solutions will experience investments beyond maintenance by between 19% and 32% of SMBs, representing a good opportunity for vendors targeting this market space.
“This study shows that Western European SMBs are slowly catching up with respect to adoption of key technology solutions. In particular, the high end of the midmarket is more active, while very small companies continue to lag behind,” says Angela Vacca, research manager, IDC European Industry Solutions.
“But on average, our survey finds that despite uncertainty in the economy, SMBs are more willing than before to enable their strategies through an improved use of key technologies as a central competitive factor.”
The study found that:
* The level of adoption with respect to six solutions (ERP, CRM, unified communications, BI and analytics, content management, and storage technologies) is quite good: when compared to the previous survey, the six technologies were adopted in the same order of importance, with storage topping the list and unified communications closing it. However, all the values were significantly lower.
* In more detail, storage solutions are today placed in more than three out of four interviewed SMBs, while the other solutions are adopted by around half of the companies in 20 – 499 employee size class.
* IT solution adoption, generally speaking, tends to increase as the company dimension increases with minor exceptions, confirming that smaller companies continue to have less resources to dedicate to IT and also that they are less knowledgeable with respect to IT advantages.
* Moreover, also future investment plans are good, beating the previous survey’s data across the six technologies. All solutions will experience investments beyond maintenance by between 19% and 32% of SMBs, representing a good opportunity for vendors targeting this market space.
“This study shows that Western European SMBs are slowly catching up with respect to adoption of key technology solutions. In particular, the high end of the midmarket is more active, while very small companies continue to lag behind,” says Angela Vacca, research manager, IDC European Industry Solutions.
“But on average, our survey finds that despite uncertainty in the economy, SMBs are more willing than before to enable their strategies through an improved use of key technologies as a central competitive factor.”