In today's digital age, technology is a fundamental aspect of any business's success. However, while most companies have an IT team in place, many still struggle to bridge the gap between their business performance and IT operations. This can lead to internal pain points such as inefficient processes, poor data management, and security breaches – and may also adversely affect your customers.
To avoid these pitfalls, it is critical for businesses to work in tandem with their IT team to identify gaps and pain points in their operations. This ensures that technology is implemented strategically and effectively, addressing the needs of the business and the customer.
Role of IT in business growth
Historically, the role of IT may have been treated as more of a support function with limited impact on critical business operations. Today, it wields a substantial influence on the growth trajectory of a business.
We commissioned market research firm Frost & Sullivan to conduct a survey on the perspectives of more than 1,000 IT decision-makers last year from companies with less than 1,000 employees across markets and industries.
The survey found the three main business objectives of SMEs this year to be increasing revenue (38%), improving operational efficiencies (29%), and increasing customer satisfaction (28%).
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Prioritising IT could be the game-changer in achieving these goals. Working with various SMEs over the years, I’ve seen first-hand how they’ve benefited from better productivity and customer satisfaction from investing in the right IT tools.
It is encouraging then that the survey also uncovered the influence that IT teams now have in the purchase of tools – 47% for IT support and management tools, 39% for communication and collaboration, and 37% for customer engagement tools.
A study by International Data Corporation predicts that by 2025, 65% of Asia-based organisations will prioritise cloud infrastructure as their primary location for data storage and analysis. Additionally, by 2027, digital infrastructure is projected to generate 43% of business revenue in the Asia Pacific region.
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As technology advances, IT will undoubtedly play an integral role in ensuring the safety and resilience of these digital spaces.
Mixed perceptions of IT from SMEs
Sixty-five percent of IT teams have responded that they have seen workloads surge in the last year, owing to added responsibilities, and complications arising from remote/hybrid work. Survey respondents also indicated that their time is mostly wasted on operational tasks such as supporting employees working remotely/in hybrid mode, calling customer support, and supporting and troubleshooting employee issues.
The majority (92%) of our survey respondents say that reducing IT burden is an important initiative. With 64% seeing an increase in IT budgets by almost 60% in 2022 compared to 2021, more than half (56%) consider IT spending an investment. However, 42% remain unconvinced and still perceive it as a cost; so much so that value for money is the main driver when choosing new IT software, especially among SMEs with sub-50 employee size (41%).
In Singapore, the top challenge for SMEs with regard to technology adoption is the high cost (59%), according to the National Business Survey 2022/2023 by the Singapore Business Federation.
There needs to be an urgent shift in the way we perceive IT and recognise its potential to help build a resilient and successful business for the future.
IT consolidation can alleviate the burden on IT teams
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Encouragingly, our survey found that 83% of SMEs consider the consolidation of tools an important initiative for 2023, with the top three reasons being an increase in employee productivity (50%), ease of management for IT teams (49%), and cost savings (41%).
To achieve these, 41% plan to switch vendors. However, switching vendors can be a challenging task with so many choices out there. Having been through this myself, I would say that the top factors for any vendor-customer relationship are reliability and trust. The majority of our respondents also say they work with managed service providers (MSPs) as they provide trusted advice on the right technology, and help in the deployment process and maintenance of the software.
And it's not just IT that benefits from consolidation. When it comes to customer support, we found that on average, SMEs use 2 different platforms/solutions to manage all customer communication, whether it's via phone, SMS, social media, or email. A consolidated tech stack can help offer more streamlined customer support which can improve the overall customer experience.
It’s clear that the role of IT in SMEs is more important these days, although there is still a gap when it comes to investing in it. More SMEs recognise that by consolidating IT, they can reduce the burden on their IT teams and better focus on more strategic initiatives that align with the company's business objectives. I am confident that in time to come, more SMEs will be taking more decisive steps to narrow the gap in prioritising IT spending.
Lindsay Brown is the vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan at GoTo
