Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are more likely to purchase software from an IT solution provider than a retailer, the 2006 SME Survey has found.
Speaking at the media launch of the results in Johannesburg this morning, World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck said 49.7% of SMEs purchase software from an IT provider, 21.8% from a retailer and 6.5% from the manufacturer.
Internet service providers and Telkom make minor contributions, as the software is not a core product offering and is bundled with Internet services and PCs, he said.
The most popular accounting software package among SMEs is Pastel, with 79.52% of SMEs using it. An unexpectedly high number (21.1%) use proprietary software that is likely adapted from Excel, he said. Basic is used by 14.9% of SMEs surveyed, Accpacc by 8.5% and Quick Books by 7.9% of respondents.
Net access
Access to IT infrastructure and Internet were also rated highly by SMEs, with 71% of respondents rating access to IT infrastructure as important and 68% rating access to Internet as important, Goldstuck said.
Of SMEs that spend less than 1% of turnover on IT, 73% regarded themselves as competitive, with the perception of being competitive increasing to 78% among those that spend 1% to 2% of their turnover, he stated.
DSL adoption has grown from 27% in 2005 to 42% in 2006 among SMEs, while dial-up has dropped from 23% to 16% within the same period. The growth of ADSL adoption and a matching drop in dial-up adoption rates is even more dramatic when comparing the 2006 and 2003 results, where only 2% of SMEs used ADSL and 62% used dial-up connection, he said.
Goldstuck noted that wireless connectivity is still viewed by SMEs as an expensive Internet option, with only 0.85% of respondents using 3G, 0.6% using iBurst and 1.6% using MyWireless.
While access to IT infrastructure and the Internet is seen as a strong building block of an SME, its importance should not be exaggerated, as access to finance is still the top requirement to build a strong, competitive organisation, Goldstuck stated.
Nikki Kearns, a director of business development at Standard Bank said the bank was already integrating some of the survey findings in its strategy.
"The information should become a fundamental part of how we do business, rather than it being something special," she said.
Key decision-makers from a sample of 6 020 SMEs, representative of all nine provinces, took part in the survey. More than 42% of respondents had between one and five PCs, 19.3% had six to 10 PCs and 15.13% had 11 to 20 PCs.
The annual survey was sponsored by Standard Bank and Oracle.
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