SMB IT Spending Rebounds, Vendors Shift Strategy
While some say that the continuing effects of the global recession will limit the growth of the small and medium-sized business (SMB) mobility market, overall spending in this level has rebounded from what it has been, according to a recent report by Strategy Analytics (SA), an IT research firm. Which areas of interest should managed services providers (MSPs) pay attention to this year, and are vendors taking the SMB market serious enough? We'll reveal the answers.
According to SA's Mobile Workforce Strategies (MWS) latest report, 2013 Top Trends Reshaping the SMB Mobility Market, the "always-on Internet" dictates how technology will be implemented in countries where technology has matured, not emerging. As a result, SMB IT spending in mobility, cloud services, mobile device management (MDM), and social technology will increase.
The report pointed to an overall increase of interest in SMB mobility because of smartphone and tablet use, driven by the increasing popularity of both Apple (AAPL) iOS and Google (Goog) Android platform, resulting in overall growth in the mobile device market over the years.
Vendors have taken another approach to SMB mobility approach, instead of watering down solutions developed for businesses on a larger scales.
"Lately, however, many are taking a new tack, starting with a bottoms-up approach where vendors design SMB applications to more closely resemble easy-to-use, highly functional consumer-social-oriented solutions, rather than complex, unwieldy enterprise software," said Gina Luk, the author of the report.
Strategy Analytics Executive Director of Enterprise Research Andrew Brown said vendors revisiting "SMB design points" to better address the needs of the market.
"In keeping with changing SMB needs and the mix of technology that will meet those needs, consumer-oriented vendors such as Amazon and Google, to Zoho are putting a user-friendly experience first, as they extend from consumer to business markets, and established SMB vendors, such as Intacct, Intuit, NetSuite, Microsoft, and Sage are upping their investments to make their solutions more accessible and simpler to use," he said.
