SMEs: Keen on IT or not?

IT vendors looking for new business in Western Europe should concentrate on mid-sized companies in the financial and communications sectors, according to a recent IDC study.

That's because companies with 100 to 499 employees are the most likely to spend on IT, the research found.

It's still a tough market to crack, though. Of the small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) surveyed, the largest percentage - 29.5 per cent - were what IDC termed 'laggards' because they had the least interest in IT as well as the lowest tendency to invest in it in the short term. Smaller organisations - with fewer than 50 employees - make up the largest percentage of the laggards.

The two types of companies most likely to spend on tech over the next 12 months, called 'IT oriented' and 'fast followers', made up 19 and 23 per cent respectively of the companies surveyed.

Because they're keen on IT, they're the types IDC said vendors should zero in on.

The remaining 28.5 per cent were termed 'wait and see' for their low intention to spend on IT in the next year.

When it comes to specific projects, SMEs lag behind large enterprises significantly in implementing mobile technologies.

Online customer service was one of the most popular areas. And security was the only technology with no adoption gap between the 'IT oriented' and 'fast followers' groups.

The study, called SMB IT Opportunities: Clustering Western European SMBs, is based on interviews with 1,178 SMEs (each with 20 to 499 employees) in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.