Remote/Hybrid Workforce
Small Businesses: The Future of the New Normal
Rob Hancock, Head of Platform, Giacom explains why SMBs are the future of the new normal and what the channel can do to enable and equip this growing sector more effectively.
T
he pandemic has forced many companies to re-think their current processes in order to maintain continuity, drive productivity
and, in some cases, just survive. 12-to-18 months aſter the first lockdown, society and business is settling into a new normal, but continues to face similar productivity challenges. Many organisations have taken on digital
changes to navigate these challenging times. But, within this new world - and new normal - we wonder if the pandemic has created an environment that is more suitable for SMBs (small-medium sized businesses) to gain the upper hand? SMBs tend to be more agile than larger enterprises because they
don’t have the same level of bureaucracy to manage. Many SMBs can bring on services and tools at a much quicker pace than larger organisations that may have to go through many layers of approval. During the pandemic, agility has never been more crucial, too, with the necessity of remote working, collaboration tools and security protocols to implement. In 2020, 45% of SMBs changed their business models in response to Covid-19. Further, there is also a misconception that SMBs can’t deploy
similar technologies to that of larger businesses. Tis is untrue. Today, SMBs can quickly develop a strong infrastructure that is based in the cloud, including key applications like security, customer data management, data backup and more.
The channel is key to SMB cloud deployment In addition to this, research shows that the cloud will continue to be crucial for the SMB market and channel. 71% of companies plan to
38 | December/January 2022
adopt cloud tech directly and more than a third of organisations will rely on the channel for support here (MSPs, VARs, retailers, or distributors). Alongside this, consider that, anecdotally,
many SMBs have fewer internal IT resources at their disposal to support with managing IT (no in-house team or staff with little IT management knowledge). In these cases, they could really benefit from outsourcing IT requirements to specialist SMB-focused MSP channel partners who can support them. Tat way they can focus on growing their business. Additionally, many entrepreneurs oſten don’t have the spare time for, or access to the training
that they need to manage IT. Terefore, the MSP, and wider channel, has an opportunity to educate this market and provide complete offerings to it. As you can tell, the opportunity is there for the taking. What’s more, the need for cloud technologies drastically has
changed for SMBs in recent years. Te SMB IT market research and industry analyst firm, Techaisle, points out that: “as recently as five years ago, most SMBs were still evaluating the cloud’s use to address business needs and operations. By 2020, the cloud was no longer a future issue: 80% of small businesses and 99% of midmarket organisations use the cloud to support some or all of their business processes.” All of this, exacerbated by the pandemic, no doubt. Traditionally, it was thought, too, that cloud services were used
more by larger enterprises with well-developed IT departments, than by the SMB market. Even before COVID-19, there were questions about how businesses would adopt the cloud, as many large organisations were starting to explore and implement digital transformations. And, although cloud-based productivity
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