Microsoft targets small businesses

Small businesses have been Microsoft’s focus in the past few weeks, with new research into their use of IT complementing new research from the IT giant about the perception of IT by smaller organisations.

According to a new report from Microsoft, a significant minority of small businesses are failing to see the benefit of more IT services to their organisations. Whilst 83% of respondents on a global basis said that IT was of importance or of critical importance to their smooth running and success, only 47% of businesses said that they would be better off with more IT services available to them. The research also looked specifically at the UK, where 39% of small businesses believed that they could benefit from more IT services.

Perhaps fuelling that perception is an unawareness of the options open to small businesses of how to obtain and pay for IT services; only 37% of UK respondents were aware that they were able to rent IT services from a telecommunications company or hosting services provider. Following on from reports last week of the ignorance amongst small businesses around software asset management, it would appear that the small business world is still behind in terms of maximising IT resources.

In keeping with this trend, Microsoft last week launched two new services for businesses. The company unveiled its new Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Server 2008, known collectively as Windows Small. The new products are an attempt to help small and midsized businesses “save money and compete in a global marketplace.” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said.

According the Microsoft, the new server platforms will help organisations reduce the set-up and ongoing management of their IT services, as well as enabling new end-user productivity and save companies’ money in license costs.

Costs, of course, are at the forefront of every business mind given the state of the global economy, and new analysis from IDC suggests that IT spending will suffer cuts in 2009. The analyst predicts that worldwide IT spending will grow by 2.6% next year, rather than by 5.9% as was forecast before the credit crisis hit. In the US, IT spending is expected to drop from 4.2%, as predicted before the credit crunch, down to a meere 0.9%.

In Western Europe, the pattern is expected to continue, with spending predicted to reach lows of around 1%. Spending in the Middle East, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America is expected to perform slightly better, with the IT industry truly beginning to take off in these areas, but even this healthy growth will drop to slightly lower levels than the pre-credit crunch estimates predicted.

Here at Calsoft, we understand small businesses, and especially how the financial downturn may affect them. Good IT systems are a key part of success, and that is why we are dedicated to simplifying and streamlining customers’ IT resources, saving money in the long run and generating better profits for everyone.

There is a bigger need today to provide cost containment initiatives, it is essential businesses are provded with value-based services to ensure the needs of the company are met by service suppliers so the organisation remains flexible in their market/industry.

Inatech was established as a value-based company that has grown to international proportions to assist small and large enterprises with global systems to compete in worldwide markets. This approach hasn’t changed since 2002.