How Are Small and Midsized Businesses Managing IT?

By Rieva Lesonsky

How does the way your small business handles its IT needs compare to what others are doing? A new study by Zoomerang Online Surveys and Polls, Cloud Computing and the Role of IT Professionals in Small- to Mid-Sized Businesses, sheds some light on the subject.

Of the businesses requiring IT support, 22 percent outsource their IT needs to vendors. Asked why they outsource IT functions, those respondents that do so cited cost-effectiveness (52 percent) and access to better resources (26 percent) as the top reasons for outsourcing.

As you might expect from small businesses trying to do more with less, IT workers within most companies in the survey also play other roles. Sixty-seven percent are involved in daily operations; 6 percent in sales and business development; and 6 percent are involved in customer support roles.  Just 21 percent focus solely on IT.

“More often than not, the IT role within a small or midsized business may be fulfilled by the most technology savvy employee, requiring them to juggle multiple responsibilities on top of keeping the company’s technology up and running,” said Alex Terry, General Manager of Zoomerang. “With limited resources, businesses are looking to every employee to contribute and as a result, the IT role is gradually shifting from one of support to one of support and revenue generation.”

Thirty percent of SMBs indicated that the role of their in-house IT staff has evolved in the past year to include day-to-day functions; 15 percent said in-house IT staff has become more involved in business development; and 11 percent said the in-house IT staff has become more involved in customer support.

Whether they use in-house IT expertise or outsource this function, the survey found good news about how small and midsized companies view their technology overall. The majority (58 percent) describe their technology systems as “good” (“not the latest, but everything runs smoothly and with minimal maintenance”). Thirty-two percent describe their technology as “intermediate” (“it has its good and bad moments”). Just 7 percent said their technology is “advanced” or ahead of the curve. And only 4 percent said it is “poor” enough so as to hinder operations.

Technology plays a more crucial role in business success than ever before. This survey shows that small businesses, by and large, are keeping pace with technology developments and using technology to run better businesses. Where does your business fit in?

Image Courtesy: Karen Axelton

This entry was posted on Friday, May 6th, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Small Business, Technology, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.