New research conducted by Altodigital reveals a startling divide between the attitudes and strategy of SMEs in comparison to larger organisations when it comes to tackling a range of crucial IT issues such as security, print services and digital transformation.
The findings reveal that 51 per cent of small and medium sized businesses simply aren’t interested in using managed print services. In addition to this, an emphatic 78 per cent also admit that they had no policy in place, despite the proven benefits for smaller organisations. This was a distinct revelation considering 82 per cent of large organisations revealed that a print policy was already in place.
The research commissioned by the office technology solutions provider consisted of two individual studies, one that polled 100 IT decision makers from corporate UK companies with 500+ employees and a further survey that delved into UK SMBs with less than 500 employees.
The results uncovered a stark contrast between the attitude of large and small businesses in the UK when it came to digital transformation. In this area, 36 per cent of large corporate businesses revealed that they had completed digital transformation, with a further 46 per cent saying it was well underway in their organisation. In terms of SMBs the gap was extensive, exactly a third (33 per cent) admitted that they had not started the transition yet and had no plans to do so.
Alistair Millar, group marketing manager at Altodigital says, ‘It is really surprising to see such a gap between large organisations in many areas, you would typically believe that small businesses are more forward thinking and agile than larger enterprises. However, these results indicate that in some areas, such as managed print services and digital transition, they could be missing a trick.’
The results also discovered an apparent lack of awareness in terms of IT issues, just three per cent of large firms believed their organisation had ‘no IT challenges’ in comparison to 34 per cent of SMBs. This is somewhat surprising considering the fluid and challenging nature of the IT environment, highlighted by the recent spate of cyberattack hacks on both large and small companies.
The corporate survey also provided an interesting insight into a larger firm’s top IT issues, with 40% listing that maintaining their existing infrastructure was the top concern.
‘While it is encouraging to see that SMEs appear to have very few IT issues, it is important that businesses stay alert to any potential threats while also optimising and improving their IT infrastructure,’ adds Millar.
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