Tech Lover 9

According to a recent economic impact report performed by Boston Consulting Group (BGC), called Ahead of the Curve: lessons on Technology and Growth from Small Business Leaders, there is a huge opportunity for Small and Medium size (SMEs) in adopting cloud based services.

SMEs represent between 60-70% of all jobs in some economies around the world (OECD) and generate the lion share of new jobs created. The BGC report estimates that if more SMEs employed the full range of avilable IT tools, including basic office software, Internet connectivity and new Cloud-based services, SME revenues could grow by a combined $770 billion in just the U.S., Germany, China, India, and Brazil, the five primary countries surveyed.

The study discloses that, in particular, that new Cloud services are enabling small businesses to make business process changes and innovations to significantly grow their businesses.
Across the world, Parallels estimates $45 billion in the market for cloud services for SMEs last year, with a growth outlook to $95 billion by 2015 at a compound annual growth rate of 28%.

Keeping in mind that the BGC report was initiated by Microsoft, it shows that SMEs using Microsoft solutions are growing faster than non-Microsoft users. Being asked what software application or technology they could not live without, Microsoft Office was chosen as the top productivity application over all others.

In addition, the report showed that SMEs that adopted Microsoft Cloud services (e.g. Office365 etc.) grew faster than non-Microsoft SMEs.

Many SMEs are still concerned with security and privacy when it comes to the cloud, although it shows that those that have already adopted and experienced cloud services are less concerned and are increasingly paving the way for others. In fact, 94% of SMEs who have moved at least one of their workloads to the cloud find that data security has actually improved.

Broadband network access is another very important factor contributing to cloud adoption for SMEs and entails a major competitive advantage for whole regions and countries from a global perspective. Not surprisingly, it shows that SMEs with capable broadband access are more likely to grow faster and adopt cloud services quicker.