SMBs need help. An IDC survey reported that 80 percent of all SMBs are looking to employ technology to solve business problems. And they need people whom they can trust, as 72 percent of small businesses and 68 percent of medium businesses aren’t satisfied with their current tech.
How do they learn about vendors and partners? It starts with previous experience with a company for 60 percent of them. Word of mouth comes in right behind, with search engines next, even ahead of social media.
Previous experience with a company is the leading way SMBs learn about vendors and partners, with word of mouth coming in right behind. Search engines still inform businesses better than social media.
Many companies want trusted advisors around both technology and specific business processes or vertical industries, said Darren Bibby of IDC. If you can speak intelligently about the industry metrics of the customer, you’ll be well ahead of the game.
Since most SMBs don’t have data analysts on staff, adding a business intelligence and analytics solution can be difficult. Traditional business intelligence and analytics solutions have been expensive and tough to use, which was a combination that put them out of reach of SMBs. The advent of self-service business intelligence helped bring BI and analytics into the SMB world. These better user interfaces often are integrated an embedded with the SMB’s business application. The addition of cloud computing and better visualization tools put BI in reach of SMBs because the tools were created for the business decision maker, not IT or a data analyst.
What makes it all possible for SMBs is simple. Literally.
“People ask what the killer app is for SMB; for me, it’s not an app per se, it’s simplicity,” said Todd Rowe, managing director of Global Channel Sales at Google. Speaking at a small-business IT forum and panel discussion hosted by Infusionsoft, he said everything has to be presented in a “Sesame Street-simple way.”
An independent software vendor wanting to serve SMBs needs to take a building-block approach and not a one-size-fits-all solution. SMBs only want to purchase what they need at a given time. While 63 percent of SMBs have partially integrated some application, you’ll find that most (79 percent) still rely on manual Excel file uploads or custom code for integration, according to SMB Group. ISVs need to provide solutions to integrate cloud, analytics, security and other solutions. An embedded, integrated self-service BI and analytics platform can meet the needs of an SMB – and is a piece that can be added to an application.
Make sure those solutions address key performance indicators (KPIs) to provide specific, actionable insights on business performance, according to SMB Group’s report.. SMBs want to know about what areas need improvement. With so many vendors fighting for SMB dollars, SMBs will increasingly seek out those that help them understand what KPIs are most relevant for their business and industry, and those that provide credible, specific metrics about how their solutions affect these KPIs.
Tech Target’s Lynn Haber wrote that SMB customers are growing more dependent on technology, but they aren’t prepared for today’s complex IT landscape. That’s great news for partners who understand an SMB customer’s specific business and industry needs. But stick to it for the long haul and share that technical expertise to make it truly great news.
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