Tech helps SMBs weather economic storm

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Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) that see IT as critical or important to their operations were more likely to see revenue growth over the recession, according to a Microsoft survey.

The poll of 3,000 SMBs from around the world found that 56 per cent said technology was critical to their businesses, while the vast majority said it was at least moderately important.

Such businesses were more likely to report a stronger growth rate over the past year than their less tech-savvy counterparts, the survey suggested.

"SMBs who consider IT as more critical to their business tended to have stronger growth," noted Microsoft's head of hosting for Europe Michael Korbacher at a roundtable event in London today. He added: "Those are the businesses that are better prepared as the economy rebounds."

"Most businesses we looked at weathered the storm quite well," he admitted, claiming 50 per cent of SMBs in the study saw some growth. "I think it's a great indicator for optimism."

The economic downturn helped Microsoft's hosting business, too. "The crisis has not had a downturn on this business, on the contrary," said Korbacher, claiming hosted services at Microsoft has seen growth of 30 to 40 per cent over the past five years.

What's this about clouds?

The study also found that SMBs that used the cloud - or at least knew about it - were more likely to have better revenue growth.

As hosted services and other cloud-like systems become more mainstream, it's becoming easier for SMBs to use them, especially when it comes to pricing. "There's kind of a street price for different kinds of services now," noted Freeform Dynamics analyst Dale Vile.

He added that security concerns shouldn't hold SMBs back. "It's important we challenge some of the pretense of security being an issue," Vile said, noting that professional hosting companies will be much more secure than keeping servers in an office.

Noting that UK firms were much more likely to be concerned about letting their data go, he said: "Is that just because we have the slightly strange British mentality that we must own every thing? A British man's home is his castle, as is his office, as is his server."

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