Small businesses may dream of reaching new heights through the use of technology but often they can end up tethered by system downtime, lost data and wasted staff time spent trying to fix problems.
Many SME IT problems stem from the way technology is procured - and by whom. A recent silicon.com survey of 567 employees conducted with the Bathwick Group revealed that corporate managers of SMEs were more likely than IT managers to get involved in purchasing decisions - and industry comment bears this out.
Andy Taylor, sales director at Systemhost, an IT services company providing systems and services to SMEs, says: "I've found that finance directors tend to get drawn in for some reason. That can tend to be driven from a cash flow perspective." Financial directors have often historically taken on an IT director role in companies where there is no dedicated IT function.
The Federation of Small Businesses reveals that 97 per cent of companies employ 20 people or fewer. For many of these companies, the responsibility for buying IT will be distributed among non-technical staff because employing a dedicated IT specialist is not feasible. That is when things can become particularly chaotic, explains Geoff Rowlinson, a partner at Fisher Wrathall, a surveyor and estate agent that now lets Systemhost provide its IT.
Before the company went to Systemhost, its IT procurement had little structure and it purchased equipment on an ad hoc basis. "No one had overall responsibility for buying IT equipment and so previously, if a surveyor needed a PC for his new secretary he would go and order one from the internet or from the local shop," says Rowlinson. "Nothing was integrated."
The problem was compounded by the fact that old computers would be put to different uses rather than being thrown away. Old, badly configured equipment with different operating systems exacerbated networking problems. "The downtime spent trying to solve network problems was giving everyone a headache," he says.
The lack of a cohesive IT policy that would have mitigated the problem was due largely to the lack of a dedicated IT person. But, says Rowlinson, hiring such as individual is "overkill for a firm with 20 staff". He initially used an IT consultant but was not happy with the results.
Is it any wonder that with non-tech-savvy business managers often participating in recruitment, IT doesn't always work for SMEs?
The surprise is not so much that SMEs have these idiosyncrasies but more that vendors haven't understood these needs. Peter Scargill, national IT chair for the Federation of Small Businesses, says: "The bigger vendors have struggled to understand the small business mentality."
Support is a case in point. While it's relatively easy for a dedicated IT person to troubleshoot a product, other small business staff will experience more difficulties searching for solutions or dealing with vendor helpdesks. "SMEs don't have time to go randomly looking for stuff," Scargill says. "I couldn't tell you how many times people have said 'my son is my technical advisor', or a relative or a friend is."
Paul White, COO for IT services firm Touchstone, says the way for both SMEs and vendors to solve these problems lies in a better understanding of SMEs' needs - and who buys the technology is only one part of the equation.
For instance, small businesses prioritise cash flow, which in turn throws business goals like customer retention and revenue generation into sharp focus. "They don't have lots of resource wrapped around the edges of that, worrying about internal procedures or systems," White says. "So although they need technology to help them with their priorities, they need it delivered in a reliable, tightly packaged way, with value for money so that they can get a quick ROI and concentrate on running the business."
Microsoft has the right idea with Small Business Server, says the FSB's Scargill. Its wizard-based configuration makes it relatively easy for a business to "sit it in a corner and have it up and running", he says. And yet it provides an SME with the basic infrastructure needed to make many small business tasks run smoothly - email, group scheduling, contact management, faxing and file sharing.
The problem for SMEs can arise when they move into early adopter technology as a way of gaining competitive advantage, says Touchstone's White. That breaks the golden rule for SME technology. "It can't be bleeding edge because it's not value for money, it's not packaged and it's not clearly going to deliver an improvement in their business. It's not a load-and-go proposition."
The SME that tries to use web services-based identity management to integrate an RFID system with other companies in its supply chain, for example, could find itself in hot water. In an attempt to gain competitive advantage, it will become embroiled both in the process re-engineering necessary to make the system map to the business and the inevitable customisation necessary to ensure the technology works.
On the other hand, using a document management system to reduce administrative headcount and avoid an expensive office move by saving space is a quick, easy fix to a tangible business problem, says White.
"Our view is that IT should be a means to an end," explains Systemhost's Taylor.
If SMEs are destined to rely on fragmented, short term strategies, managed by busy non-IT executives who procure without planning, then the best way forward for them is to buy IT that sits in the corner - and stays there, doing a simple job, so that everyone else can get on with running the business. Likewise, the best plan for vendors attempting to cater to this market is to provide such easy-to-use solutions.
This sort of IT may not propel a small company to great heights but it will at least get it to a cruising altitude.
