SMBs and New Technologies: They Like Them, but They Don’t Use Them

By the DynaSis Team

With technology gurus and media touting the benefits and adoption rates of advanced technologies such as cloud computing, one might assume that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. A new study from Ipsos Research (commissioned by Microsoft) shows that for SMBs (small to midsized businesses), that’s not the case.

Per the survey, conducted in early May 2014, only 30% of SMBs polled report adopting cloud computing, despite its obvious benefits. Other “hot” technologies such as tablets, payment technologies and social media apps also don’t rank highly, with only 34%, 34% and 31% considering of SMB owners considering them important, respectively.

Far more important to these business owners are laptop computers (68%), desktop computers (67%), smartphones (60%) and the supposed dinosaurs of technology—landlines (52%). More troubling, perhaps, is that it’s not that business owners don’t like these technologies. Of those polled, 86% said that keeping up with technology trends is important to their business (50% ranked it very important; 36% said it was somewhat important). Rather, they do not think their questions and concerns about these developments have been adequately addressed.

Specifically, the top three concerns of SMB owners regarding adopting new technologies were:
The expense of upgrading and/or maintaining technology (35%)
Security of new technologies (22%)
Mobility and access—specifically, the ability to work with content from multiple devices in any location (16%).

At DynaSis, we have long maintained that security, availability and mobility are the three pillars of success with technology, so we couldn’t agree with these business owners more. What these SMB owners (and others) may not realize is that it is no longer expensive or complicated to address security and achieve mobility and accessibility.

Furthermore, when SMBs develop technology plans that are aligned with their business objectives, the cost of upgrading proactively can be less expensive than dealing with equipment failures and outages as they occur. In fact, when the cost of downtime, lost business opportunity and company standing, and the productivity value of new technologies are factored in, unplanned upgrades and repairs are almost always considerably more expensive than making improvements at a measured pace.

With the survey also reporting that a substantial percentage of SMBs still manually collect and store data on individual hard drives (36%) and/or use filing cabinets and folders to collect, store and share files (26%), it’s evident that many SMBs are really missing out on the value of centralized (including cloud/online) storage solutions.

On the plus side, 40% of SMB staffers are now able to work remotely at least 50% of the time. That’s great news, but if they are still tied to hard drives and file folders, they are not working very productively.

If any of these statistics ring a bell with you, please fill out our inquiry form or give us a call at 678.218.1769. Our certified IT pros will come to your location, review how IT is (or isn’t) helping you achieve your business goals and objectives, and show you how it can be affordable to transition from outdated, insecure and impermanent technology solutions to a future where everyone works collaboratively and productively, from any location they choose.