destinationCRM.com: Big Changes in Solutions for Small Businesses
By Marshall Lager
Consumerization, software-as-a-service, and several other industry developments are affecting how application vendors approach smaller organizations.
Adoption of CRM and similar
applications by small and midsize businesses (SMBs) is no longer in
doubt, according to new research by AMI-Partners. The report, entitled
“Top Trends Reshaping the Small and Medium Business Solutions Market,”
identifies seven interrelated ways in which the market will change.
“There’s a changing dynamic
in the market, with the potential to help businesses that haven’t been
customers of solutions vendors,” says Laurie McCabe, vice president of
SMB insights and solutions with AMI-Partners, and the report’s author.
“We’ve taken a look at the things reshaping how vendors approach SMBs,
who the customers are, and what they’re expecting.”
The seven factors listed in the report are:
Of these, consumerization
may be the most noticeable to casual observers. After numerous attempts
to deliver truncated versions of application suites originally intended
for large enterprises, vendors are realizing that ease of deployment
and use are critical considerations. While people are getting more
comfortable with technology, technology is getting more comfortable as
well. “Tech doesn’t have to be hard, and consumer-oriented vendors like
Amazon and Zoho are broadening their scope to include small business,”
McCabe says. “If implementation and deployment is a hurdle, many SMBs
won’t do it. Vendors must do what needs to be done to ensure the user
experience is closer to the ease of an Amazon or Facebook.”
SaaS, touted by many as an
ideal option for small businesses — and still on the rise within the
sector — hasn’t reached anything like ubiquity yet. In 2004, 10
percent of small businesses and 15 percent of midsize businesses used
SaaS, according to the report; those figures had doubled by 2007, to 21
percent and 30 percent, respectively. As one might expect, the
availability and falling prices of broadband Internet connections has
helped the rise of SaaS, but other factors have played — and will
continue to play — more important roles.
In the report, McCabe outlines several of these factors:
No single trend discussed in
the AMI report truly stands alone, but McCabe’s last bullet point
includes a degree of insight into SMB users themselves, and how
assumptions about them may need to change. “Demographics are shifting,”
McCabe says. “The trend of people starting their own businesses is on
the uptick: Young workers just out of college, retirees and others who
have left the 9-to-5 business world, stay-at-home mothers who don’t
want to give up on business and entrepreneurship — all need business
solutions to support them.”
The diverse backgrounds of
these potential customers will spark a need for better-targeted
offerings. “SMB marketing has traditionally been targeted to companies
that want to grow their business, but many of these entrepreneurs don’t
want to grow beyond being home-based. They want to operate on their own
terms, and may be turned off by the growth message,” McCabe warns.
“Vendors must recognize this and create best-fit opportunities.”
Technorati Tags: consumerization, software-as-a-service, netsuite, saas
