Closing the Small Business Cloud Knowledge Gap

SBs Lack of Knowledge, not Expertise, is the Critical Barrier for Cloud Providers, says AMI

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to AMI-Partners, worldwide small businesses (SBs) (1-99 employees) represent a significant opportunity for Cloud services, particularly Software as a Service (SaaS). However, one in five SBs currently not using SaaS report that their businesses are too small for such applications. Significant subsets of these small businesses believe that they do not have the appropriate expertise to make the migration to hosted applications.

“Even though some budget has been allocated for SaaS products, we see a gap between planned and actual spending. Small businesses have the capital available to make significant advances in the Cloud; however, they are still uncertain as to how a Cloud solution will benefit firms of their size.”

Cloud computing has been available for years, but it is only recently that affordable solutions are being presented to small businesses. SBs are now ready to move off the sidelines and act. According to AMI research, worldwide SBs have allocated 18% of their total software spending for SaaS related software, a figure similar to that of medium businesses (MBs, 100 to 999 employees). However, there are still hurdles to overcome in order to reach this critical market.

“Cloud-related Information and Communications Technology (ICT) spending is projected to account for a sizeable portion of total Worldwide SMB ICT spending in 2010. Cloud providers are racing to deliver functional, cost-effective solutions to small businesses worldwide,” according to Michael McDonald, Senior Associate with AMI-Partners. “Small businesses have been laggards in adopting new technologies that fall outside their comfort zone, often looking to larger firms as test cases,” McDonald continues.

“The larger issue is the lack of knowledge regarding Cloud,” according to McDonald. “Even though some budget has been allocated for SaaS products, we see a gap between planned and actual spending. Small businesses have the capital available to make significant advances in the Cloud; however, they are still uncertain as to how a Cloud solution will benefit firms of their size.”

Cloud service providers targeting SBs should understand that educating the decision-makers of these companies on the ease and simplicity of migrating to SaaS applications is essential. Further, channel partners should be armed with simple case studies demonstrating these benefits.

Related Study

Small and medium business preferences for Cloud-based application bundles, their price sensitivity and purchase channel preferences are further explored in AMI's upcoming Worldwide SMB Cloud Services Study. This study provides comprehensive coverage of: Platforms and Devices; IT Infrastructure Services; Business Productivity Applications; Business Management/Line of Business Applications; and Unified Communications. Research will be available later in 2010.

For more information about AMI-Partners, our Global SMB Cloud Services, or our other global SMB research, please call 212 944 5100, e-mail [e-mail] or visit www.ami-partners.com.

About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

AMI-Partners, the leader in global ICT market intelligence and go-to-market consulting in the SMB space, has launched a groundbreaking, unique series of services focused on assessing the market opportunity for cloud offerings in the SMB market. AMI specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence — with a strong focus on global small and medium businesses (SMBs), and extending into large enterprises and home-based businesses. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business strategy perspectives and “go-to-market” solutions.

AMI has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets; its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 25 countries; and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis.