Subscription services offer competitive way forward for SMBs

Posted by admin on February 20, 2010 under IT | Comments are off for this article

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) have reason to feel optimistic. A forthcoming report from Microsoft (the Microsoft SMB Hosted IT Index 2010) states that 86% of SMBs worldwide see IT as ‘very important’ or ‘critical’, recognising the impact IT has on business productivity by way of customer and supplier contact, marketing facilities and accountancy for example.  The report also identified what it calls SMB ‘IT envy’ – the belief that the more IT you have the more effectively you can compete with bigger businesses.  Regardless of cost, 4 in 5 businesses think they would be better off having more IT tools although the economic downturn has severely impacted IT spend.

So, understanding that IT solutions can help small businesses, but without the funds to invest, where does that leave SMBs?

Subscribing to hosted services <http://co1piltwb.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/mcoeredir/mcoeredirect.aspx?linkId=13157941&s1=87f0afaa-993e-cd03-6e64-722429291a16> is emerging as a clear winner here. Subscription models mean you can buy the services you need as and when you need them so that you might only rent a service for a month to support a particular sales campaign or at certain times of year.

Source: Microsoft

Free Resources

Marketing-Simply – A Guide to Marketing for SMEs –
Business Plan Template – Cashflow Template – Start Up Guide
Guide To Strategic Planning – Small Business Guide

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