Leader: Neglect the SME at your peril

The government's recently declared aim to get PCs into the homes of British workers – via the HCI scheme – is a laudable one. Cheap PCs for people who wouldn't otherwise think of buying them, tax breaks for employers, a few quid bunged towards hardware suppliers – it's all good, you might think.

But when those hardware suppliers turn their noses up at taking money off companies that just want a handful of PCs in favour of chasing after huge corporates with millions to throw about, the scheme becomes a farce.

While it's difficult to point the finger at the government – they rightly can't be seen to be preferring one supplier over another – the tech manufacturers can't be let off so easily. Opting to be a 'partner' in the scheme and preaching about 'bridging the digital divide' doesn't wash when the only digital divide they want to bridge is that between corporate cash and their account books.

That's all very well, you might say – but they're just trying to make money like everyone else. And you'd be right – precisely why such companies are foolish to ignore the SME sector.

SMEs, not their huge multinational cousins, are the cornerstone of British business. They employ the vast majority of British workers, they make up the lion's share of all companies on UK soil and, more importantly, they're keen to spend money on technology.

While tech salespeople will have to put in long hours, tough negotiations and, chances are, cut some pretty lean deals to get a corporate enterprise to choose them for a several-thousand PC HCI scheme, as well as commit to substantial aftercare, the same can't be said for SMEs.

Small and medium–sized companies want PCs for their staff now – they don't have the same luxury of time to devote to nitpicking over deals and they can't wield the same buying power. More importantly, today's SMEs are tomorrow's multinationals – get the small players onside now and you could find yourself hooking a major client in the years to come.

There are countless millions of PCs to be supplied to the thousands of SMEs across Britain – rich pickings for any hardware supplier. Resellers that neglect the sector do so at their own cost.