Helping SMEs into the cloud

There's been a spate of research released over the last few months (some independent and some vendor-sponsored) showing increased enthusiasm amongst SMEs (SMBs) for cloud services.  Whilst I'm not disputing that there is more interest in web services within many small companies, I think there is still a way to go before there is a widespread move away from server/desktop apps to the cloud.  I wrote a bit about this in earlier post but since then I've spoken to more companies and come to the conclusion there are some basic issues that need addressing before cloud computing hits the mainstream.  My diagram summarises my current thinking.

KNOWLEDGE

Benefits of cloud - while early tech-savvy early adopters might be aware of the benefits to productivity and collaboration of web-based services, the majority of SMEs are less interested and need focused and relevant demonstrations of these advantages.

Product offerings - new services are being launched on an almost daily basis and this is causing confusion.  SMEs need unbiased sources of information about what is available in the marketplace which explains product offerings in non-technical language.  Transparent and flexible pricing schemes are also needed - too many vendors are still hiding their prices or offering schemes that do not suit their target market.

Wordflow integration - building on the last point, there need to be clear demonstrations of how these new services fit into the workflows of SMEs so that they are not seen as just one more bit of technology that needs to be understood and assimilated.  Case studies/video testimonials of current customers are useful in overcoming this hurdle.

TRUST

Reliable service - this is a recurring theme and a concern amongst many of the SMEs I have spoken to. They generally trust the PCs and servers in their offices and the software that runs on them.  They need to be confident that the web services they may entrust their information to will be as reliable.  SLAs obviously have a place here.

Secure data - following from the last point, many SMEs are not willing to trust their customer data to third parties in the cloud.  For many companies this data is their lifeblood and they need to be 100% confident that it will be looked after, not be hacked and not be shared.  This is probably one of the most difficult barriers to overcome - a report in the media of data being lost/hacked/compromised and many SMEs will stick with their internal systems.

Not locked in - many cloud services offer the opportunity to export data out of their systems and that is a good thing.  However, allowing a compressed XML download of data may not be enough in itself.  For companies that can make sense of a large XML file and extract meaningful data from it it may not be a problem but most small companies would not know where to begin.  This is an opportunity for someone to create an easy to use tool for manipulating XML data via a simple graphical interface.

How SMEs use social media

New research from Daryl Willcox Publishing digs into how SMEs in the UK use social media.  Just over half of the 269 companies surveyed said they use social media to promote their businesses.  It's not clear from the results the type of companies which took part so the findings may not be representative of all SMEs.  I would be surprised if those proportions would be applicable across the board.  According to the results, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the weapons of choice for most respondents.  This is not surprising but I would have thought blogs might have been a little more popular.  Perhaps blogging is just too much work for time-stretched business owners.

Any business that wants to know more about how social media could help their business might be interested in a training course I am running in November and December.  Click below for more details:

http://www.brighton.ac.uk/ctc/courses/course_web2_socialmedia.html

Technology and business change - creative destruction?

McKinsey Quarterly's  "Clouds, big data and smart assets - Ten tech-enabled business trends to watch" is worth a read for anyone interested in some of the meta issues related to technologically driven change (the full article is free for registered users of the McKinsey website - registration is free).  However, its focus on how large companies are being impacted by new technologies is missing an important point.  I think one of the most important changes to the business environment is the power that many new, easy to use and affordable technologies gives to small companies.  The ability to quickly create agile teams of independent workers who can collaborate seamlessly across geographic and organisational boundaries is significant. Large companies, even if they are using wikis, blogs and other online tools, stand to ultimately lose out as new ways of working become more attractive to the workforce.

DIY marketing for SMEs

David Meerman Scott's book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, is a great primer for any small business wanting to better understand how to harness the web as a marketing tool.  He has just made this 2 page marketing planning template available for free download (it is in PDF format). The first page prompts you to answer some basic questions about your customers, your company and your products/services.  Although they might seem rather obvious, the act of filling in the template forces you to think more precisely about what it is you are trying to market/sell within the context of using the web as a channel.  I've just been using it for a service I'm considering launching next year and it has definitely helped to clarify my thinking.

Web services for SMEs

I've been doing some research into how SMEs are using the Web in their businesses.  In 2008 I did an online survey of over 500 SMEs and their use of technologies - the results are here.  Over the last few weeks I've been interviewing a number of these companies to discuss in more detail how they use a range of services from Twitter and Facebook to Google Docs and LinkedIn.  The results are interesting and show a wide range of awareness and confidence in using these tools.  Coming out of this research will be a training programme for SMEs to be delivered over the next academic year.  The graphic below summarises what these companies are using web services for and where individual services cut across multiple functions.