Small and mid-sized businesses are becoming 'more sophisticated' in their technology purchases, trying out software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)) and managed services, new research from the Computing Technology Industry Association finds.


The survey of more than 400 SMBs across the United States finds that 'nearly 30 percent of them plan to implement SaaS in 2010,' with the primary reason given being 'to lower costs and maintain their competitive edge.'

That’s up from 22 percent and 14 percent respectively in the two prior years.

“Between 70 percent and 80 percent of the SMBs we surveyed consider the usage of ERP, CRM and online e-commerce capabilities as strategic to their business,” says Tim Herbert, vice president, research, CompTIA (News - Alert). “IT solutions that are tied to instant return on investment in business communication and customer outreach efforts have the highest likelihood of adoption.”

A couple weeks ago TMC's (News - Alert) Jyothi Shanbhag reported that CompTIA released a new business management education module 'aimed at helping technology providers.

Thirty percent of SMBs say they intend to implement managed services in 2010. Perhaps not surprisingly, 42 percent of SMBs do not have a formal IT department, the study finds, 'relying instead on workers handling IT needs on a part-time basis.'

SMBs, the study finds, want technology to 'drive revenues, produce immediate results to the bottom line and have a direct, positive impact on the customer’s experience.' As a result there's growing adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and related products.

Though the study found SMBs 'somewhat upbeat' about business prospects in 2010 -- seven in ten expect positive revenue growth -- they said they want to keep current IT systems operational as long as they can -- hey IT budgets are lean, too. Nobody's looking for excuses to rip everything out and start over.

“Technology providers may be well advised to approach SMBs with either new IT tools that represent low perceived risk or replacements that positively impact productivity and efficiency,” Herbert advises.

The survey was conducted among 409 SMBs during the fourth quarter of 2009 to determine their adoption, purchase plans, perception, mindset, spending, purchase decision making and related issues vis-à-vis IT products and services. Respondents were representative of businesses with 10-499 employees in manufacturing, finance and insurance, healthcare, government and other industries.