Technologies that offer a clear business benefit are seeing significant uptake from the small and medium enterprise sector, according to the results of the 2018 SME Survey, released at the Wanderers Club on 27 March.
These technologies include the cloud, fibre connectivity and - most interestingly - the Internet of things (IOT). According to principal researcher Arthur Goldstuck, some 83% of SMEs have indicated that they expect to be making use of the IOT within the next three to five years.
"While SMEs tend to be relatively slow when it comes to adopting new technologies, they will do so more quickly if there is a clear business case to do so. As sensors begin to proliferate and individuals become used to aspects of the IOT like vehicle tracking, it is hardly surprising that they are realising how the IOT can benefit them. Few other new technologies have gained similar traction within this market, with artificial intelligence (AI), big data, 3D printing and Blockchain all hardly featuring in SME's minds," he says.
Goldstuck also points out how rapidly this market is adopting fibre as its connectivity solution of choice. Fibre uptake has grown from just 7% among SMEs to 25 % in the past three years, he explains, while ADSL use has slipped from 73% to 59%.
"This perfectly mirrors the manner in which fibre overtook dial-up between 2003 and 2009 and demonstrates that SMEs know a good value proposition when they see one. I suspect that fibre will have overtaken ADSL as the SME's choice of connectivity within the next two years."
Cloud is another good example of how SMEs recognise value in a technology, he adds, as its adoption by this market has grown from 5% in 2015 to 60% in the latest survey. This may well be driven by the fact that the commercial Internet service most used by SMEs is paid for online e-mail, which is essentially a cloud service.
"It is also worth noting that SMEs are grasping the benefits of technology in another way as well - that of marketing. The survey indicates that in the past six years, their adoption of online advertising as a means of getting their message out there has grown from just 7% to 63%. They have also recognised how useful social media is as a tool, with 55% of SMEs in the latest survey stating that they make use of these platforms. This contrasts significantly with print media, which has shrunk from 67% down to just 39%."
"The longer-term benefit of more SMEs adopting fibre and the IOT is that, once they get to grips with the many possibilities offered by these technologies, they will be more confident in aiming for a higher digital level. And the more digitally transformed these businesses become, the better they will be placed to compete more directly in a business sense with big enterprises," he says.
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