Adopt technology and grow your business

REDMOND, Wash: During slow economy, businesses that value IT as an enabler for better business productivity and effectiveness and those that use hosted services performed better fiscally than those that do not, said a report released by Microsoft Corp.

The global SMB IT and Hosted IT Index 2010, released today investigates how small and midsize businesses (SMBs) across multiple segments fared during the recession and how they use technology.

IT Critical to Revenue Growth

Despite the global recession, more SMBs surveyed in 2010 reported an increase in revenue than in 2008. Those that reported growth view IT as critical to their business success.

In the past 12 months, 52 per cent of SMBs reported an increase in revenue, up from 39 per cent in 2008. Increasing 20 points since 2008, 55 per cent of SMBs view IT as critical to their business.

Of the SMBs that view IT as critical, 60 per cent saw revenues grow over the past 12 months. In contrast, among SMBs that stated IT is not important, less than 29 per cent saw revenue increase.

SMBs Moving Toward Cloud Computing

The 2010 index indicates SMBs are beginning to see the benefits of cloud computing; more than 40 per cent of the respondents that use hosted or cloud technology reported revenue rises of 30 per cent or more compared with 90 per cent of respondents not using hosted technology that saw decreases in revenue. The advantages of hosted or cloud technology are viewed as reduced cost and IT management and maintenance, as well as increased business value, productivity and competitiveness.

Awareness of hosted services is increasing with 65 per cent of SMBs using hosted software to some extent, while 73 per cent of the remainder have considered it, compared with only 44 per cent in the 2008 Index.

SMBs are beginning to understand the value of "renting" IT as a service — 36 per cent said a pay-as-you-go model would be attractive.

Cloud computing has become a watchword for the IT industry as software and services such as e-mail, Web sites and e-commerce are increasingly available in an on-premises, off-premises or hybrid model depending on business need.

"Over the last five years, we have seen nearly 40 per cent growth in usage of hosted services," said Michael Korbacher, director of EMEA Software plus Services in the Communications Sector at Microsoft.

"Using pay-as-you-go cloud technologies, small and midsize businesses can now afford and easily have access to enterprise-class, secure services across any platform," he added.