The inability to scale bandwidth at a reasonable cost is keeping Third World SMEs from fully harnessing the power of IT to grow their businesses and gain a competitive advantage, says Paul Mulder, specialist technology group manager at Microsoft SA.
The dual First and Third World nature of the South African economy has resulted in a dichotomy between customers in the formal and informal sectors, he notes.
This poses an additional challenge to the local SME, as dealing with customers in the formal economy requires a significantly different approach and strategy to dealing with those in the informal sector, Mulder continues.
The levels of sophistication and geographical distribution of consumers, coupled with bandwidth complexity, means South African SMEs must continually innovate to retain and win market share, he explains.
"The good news for SMEs is the growing trend for vendors to provide small businesses with easy, fast and affordable business solutions."
Established SME vendors like Microsoft are investing in making their solutions more accessible and simpler to use, he states. Even vendors from the large enterprise space are releasing solutions designed for companies without any IT staff, Mulder adds.
<B>ICT for SMEs</B>
More information about ITWeb's ICT for SMEs conference, which takes place on 27 May at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, is available online here.
Mulder will speak at ITWeb's ICT for SMEs conference, on 27 May at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.
His presentation will compare and contrast the South African experience with common global SME trends and the implications for ICT providers. It will look at the key purchasing audiences and trends such as mobility, CRM, software-as-a-service, IT maturity and virtualisation.
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