Canadian SMEs fearlessly go high-tech

According to the Net Impact SME Canada 2006 survey, Canadian small- and medium-sized enterprises are taking what study authors are calling a "big business approach” to technological investment.

The Net Impact study was conducted by global market intelligence firm Illuminas, and found that the ICT infrastructures of small- and medium-sized businesses are becoming increasingly similar to those of larger enterprises. Meeting customer demands was cited as the primary driver of investment for about thirty-three percent of respondents, and some 25 percent gave increased competition as a key factor.

"We’ve seen a marked change over the last decade, with Canadian businesses becoming far more strategic in their approach to technology investment," said Illuminas managing director Jay Shutter. "Previously, with most SMEs, technology was about simply getting the job done. Now … IT is being harnessed to drive customer engagement with more sophisticated customer relationship management and enterprise software applications." Cisco Canada vice president of commercial operations David De Abreu concurred upon seeing study results: "We’ve witnessed an important transition in how SMEs value technology.”

Key findings in the study include:

• 75 percent of SMEs are using networking hardware and software and network security solutions to automate, enhance or improve business processes.

• Half of SMEs report their ICT strategy is aligned with their business strategy.

• Half of SMEs report that technology is enabling them to find new customer prospects.

• More than one-third of SMEs are exploring technologies or implementing them as soon as possible to gain a competitive advantage.

• The typical SME has not established performance metrics for monitoring and evaluating its ICT investments on a consistent basis.

• Fifty-nine per cent report an increase in current year-over-year revenue, and 67 percent expect earnings to increase again over the next year.

The Net Impact SME Canada study was comprised of interviews with senior decision makers from 200 organizations employing fewer than 500. 2006 marks the fifth year in which Cisco has commissioned a study to explore the status of information and communication technology use in the Canadian SME market.

The complete Net Impact SME Canada 2006 survey can be found at the Cisco homepage.

Formerly known as Momentum Research Group, Illuminas is a research consultancy headquartered in the United Kingdom, with offices in London; Hong Kong; New York, N.Y.; San Francisco, Calif.; and Austin, Texas. Over the last seven years, Illuminas’ technology practice has examined the macro- and micro-economic impact information and communications technologies on business in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Canada.

Networking solutions provider Cisco Systems Canada Co. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc. and has offices across Canada.