"Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are incredibly competitive and companies in the segment are far more likely to leverage advanced technologies to maintain competitive advantage than larger enterprises," says Wolfgang Held, network consultant at 3Com SA.
Held says although SMBs value proven technologies, they need the best tools at their disposal to make sure they are competitive as possible.
This trend of SMBs rapidly adopting new technologies is something IT infrastructure developers are increasingly seeking to capitalise on, targeting products at the SMB market drivers of lower price and ease of use.
"In recognition of this trend and the huge potential for the growth of this market, 3Com has a team dedicated to developing product sets for the SMB market aimed at cutting costs, increasing sales and improving customer service," says Held.
In addition to competitive advantage through using suitable technology, other important market drivers for SMBs include increased network efficiency to be able to handle real-time applications in terms of voice and video, and future-proofing the environment with Gigabit Ethernet capability.
"SMBs do not have the budgets to spend on technology for technology`s sake, and therefore every cent of IT spend needs to contribute to the bottom line by increasing profitability or reducing expenses or both," says Held.
Internet connectivity is also becoming increasingly important to SMBs in terms of information as well as improving market visibility.
"One of the ways an SMB can differentiate itself is by having an effective presence on the Internet, with some SMBs working exclusively through the Internet as their business model, making their IT infrastructure all the more critical, " says Held.
While IT investment is traditionally associated with larger enterprises, Held says the competitiveness of the market has made it of vital importance to SMBs through its ability to deliver cost reduction, increased sales and visibility, improved customer service and innovative services.
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