Archive
Market for Mobile Business Apps to be $6B+ by 2014
According to Compass Intelligence, market for mobile business apps to grow to $6.12B in 2014 from $3.21 last year. By far, greatest use of apps is for navigation/tracking (nearly half of businesses use apps for this purpose). Link to article here.
Google Reaches Out to SMB while Creating Serious Problems For Them with Caffeine
Posted yesterday about how Google is trying to reach out to SMBs to promote its local services- interesting article on how Caffeine (new algorithm) is making SMBs very nervous….http://on.wsj.com/eJW6wz
HubSpot: Innovator in B2B Marketing
Was recently introduced to a company that is leading the charge in driving the efficiency of B2B marketing called HubSpot. HubSpot makes a platform for SMBs to manage content, campaigns, leads and conversion across all of the social media channels. There’s lots to like about this company, but a couple of things stand out: 1) the way that they are on the cutting edge of using social media for their own marketing and (check out how their lead in terms of twitter followers vs. other top B2B SW firms- http://b.qr.ae/igVyJM ) and 2) the content that they provide on their own site.
If you are a business that sells to other businesses, this is a company worth watching.
2011 Estimates for SMB IT Spending
According to Gartner, SMBs (defined as entities which employ less than 999 employees) will spend an estimated $860B on IT. $137B of this will be on software. Gartner estimates only 11-18% of firms purchase on-demand services, but predicts that this will grow to 35% by 2012.
SMBs See Technology Investment as Top Proirity
According to a Doremus and Forbes insight study, 45% of SMBs surveyed would upgrade technology if they were able to obtain additional capital. Suggests that this is a particularly attractive segment for vendors of technology solutions.
SMBs Just Starting to Leverage the Power of the Cloud
Adoption of cloud-based apps by SMB still in early stages. http://bit.ly/gm6R6w
Feet on Street Key to SMB Penetration?
Many tech companies end up having to rely on direct sales force to drive adoption of solutions in SMB space. I believe this is due to 1) perceived complexity of offer and 2) limited bandwidth on part of business owner to investigate and try new technology.
