SaaS, Managed Services Gain Favor with SMBs
An 11-country study by technology research firm AMI-Partners found increasing interest in managed services and software-as-a-service among small and midsize businesses, reports eWEEK.
In the study, 60 percent of SMBs worldwide reported interest in managed services, a gain of almost 100 percent from the previous three months, and nearly 40 percent of SMBs said they were interested in SaaS. The services they were most likely to contract out were storage, security and telecommunications.
The survey also found changing dynamics in the way IT assets are purchased, with more companies reporting top company leaders increasingly are involved in determining the business needs that the equipment or service is destined to address and in brand selection. In fact, a fourth-quarter 2008 U.S. study put the number of top executives involved in brand selection at 31 percent for SMBs; that number jumped to 83 percent in this multinational survey.
As AMI’s Chad Thompson notes on destinationCRM.com, the economy has forced many small businesses to eliminate the IT manager role, so company owners and other top officials are having to take it over or contract it out. These companies also are looking for flexible payment options or pay-as-you-go services.