If you’re worried about your relevance, CompTIA data says not to be. 62% of respondents in CompTIA’s latest research, SMB Technology Buying Trends, say the use of technology today is a primary factor in reaching their strategic business goals. Thirty-one percent deem tech a secondary factor in those critical efforts, with only 5% calling it a non-factor. Let’s quote the report.
In general, these more aggressive business goals seem to map with more positive attitudes about the current state of their business. Three in 10 SMBs agreed that their company was thriving this far in 2022 by increasing revenue and profitability. That compares with 22% that said so last year. Most firms describe their health as holding steady in revenue and profit levels, similar to last year (51% in 2022 and 48% in 2021). The number that reports struggling this year, a net 19%, is down from 29% that said so in 2021.
Other areas of growth – this one from Synergy Research Group. Pending on cloud-based and on-prem collaboration technologies grew to nearly $15 billion in Q2 2022, an 8% quarterly bump compared to last year. Quoting CIO Dive:
Companies decreased the proportion of collaboration investment in on-prem, doubling down on cloud-based “as a Service” technologies. On-prem spending accounted for just 20% of the $15 billion. At the same time, nearly half went to a small group of high-growth, in-demand services, including service-based unified communication, contact center, and communications platform technology.
The article further positions this as good for Microsoft and bad for Zoom due to the former’s positioning broadly to deliver all the services around work.
That list of technologies is the critical insight – where are the high-growth, in-demand services? Around supporting collaboration and work. If you want to be as relevant as possible to your customers (who seem optimistic), then you’ll be focusing here.