Getting connected in business - fast

Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx and lead researcher for SME Survey 2005, says: "The proportion of SMEs connecting to the Internet via ADSL has almost doubled over 2004 and increased tenfold over 2003.

"We forecast last year that dial-up connectivity among SMEs would become a last resort option, but it seems to be happening even faster than expected."

This trend has emerged from the first 1700 interviews with decision-makers in SMEs. By the time the survey is completed at the end of June this year, 6000 decision-makers will have been interviewed, making SME Survey 2005 the biggest survey yet of the factors behind the success of small and medium businesses. The research is made possible through backing from Standard Bank, MWEB Business and Microsoft.

A major aim of the survey is to measure the competitiveness of SMEs, the factors that make them competitive, and the quality of the enabling environment for SMEs.

In measuring the role played by specific information technology categories in improving the ability of SMEs to compete, it was found that online banking had the highest positive ranking - 81% of respondents reporting that it has a positive impact on their ability to be competitive, and only 9% giving it a negative rating.

Accounting software is close behind, with 78% positive and 8% negative, suggesting that accounting packages have made a major impact in streamlining business processes for SMEs.

Operating systems score a surprisingly high 77% positive rating, while email, which is often described as the killer application of the Internet, only rates a fourth place, with 74% positive.

Commenting on the preliminary research findings is Andre Joubert, general manager of MWEB Business: "The enormous uptake of broadband connectivity amongst SMEs across all industry sectors is indicative of the role that it plays in their market competitiveness. ADSL usage has nearly doubled from last year's figures and we foresee immense potential for this technology to transform the way in which SMEs conduct business."

Networking in general fares relatively poorly, at 66% positive, while the World Wide Web does not come even close to other application areas in improving SMEs competitiveness, scoring only a 58% positive rating. This can be seen to be a consequence of the inability of SMEs to come up with appropriate strategies to leverage the power of the Web, and of the inability of developers and vendors to offer an effective value proposition to SMEs.

And, if Human Resources is the poor relation of corporate strategy in the business world, it applies doubly in software applications, particularly among smaller businesses: a mere 34% of respondents were positive on human resources software, and a high 41% were negative.

For more information, visit www.smesurvey.co.za.