- ROI Trumps Technology
- A Webtorials State-of-the-Market Report
- Steven Taylor and Leslie Barteaux
SMBs are clearly caught between minimizing and controlling their cost of operations and improving their technological advantage within their companies as well as for their customers. They are aware of cloud-based technologies and know that they can improve their operations through enhancement of their technology. They know they need improvement in their internal and external communication methods.
Moving to cloud-based technologies is of great interest because the move could provide:
- From a technical perspective:
- more efficient methods of operations
- leading edge technology to enable their employees / their company to be / remain on the cutting edge
- enhanced communications: internally, remote employees and their customers
- And from a financial perspective:
- hard cost savings in terms of asset investments
- soft cost savings in terms of increased employee productivity
Minimizing impact on their total cost of operations, maximizing their working capital / cash flow, and markedly improving their overall operations (particularly in the arena of communications) are the factors that will drive the business decisions of these SMBs. Any proposal to upgrade their technological advantage will be met with open arms if appropriately presented with the proper background and education.
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Please note that this report was made possible in part due to the generous support of Fonality.
This report represents a bit of a departure from our "normal" State-of-the-Market Reports. In particular, rather than producing a report that examines a given topic and assuming that the solutions apply across businesses of all sizes, this report focuses on the challenges and solutions for supporting Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs).
As we observe in the report, "the SMB segment of the economy is often overlooked in technology trend studies that focus on larger enterprises. The closest that we come to addressing this market is to concentrate on SOHO (Small Office / Home Office) and ROBO (Remote Office / Branch Office) solutions. However, these solutions may or may not be a fit for SMBs because the SOHO/ROBO solutions are often a part of a larger Enterprise-based solution."
Many thanks to Fonality, whose generous support has in part made this report possible.
I trust that you will find the observations in this report to be most useful, and I look forward to your additional comments and/or observations.