Search
Blog posts tagged survey
Watch out - the tech-savvy young entrepreneurs are coming
November 26, 2012
A laptop and notepad - all you need? (Image: slightly everything on Flickr)
Forget the briefcase and the sharp suit. Ditch the oversize Filofax. Never mind the company car. The most important piece of equipment you need to successfully start a business is a laptop.
That, at least, seems to be the opinion of the next generation of entrepreneurs. Dell asked 380 students aged 15 - 24 about their business aspirations. Around 63% wanted to start a business after college or university.
What's more, 70% said they felt a laptop was the most important item for business success. 13% said a mobile phone was more vital.
You could file this in a folder marked 'the bleeding obvious', but actually I think it highlights the ongoing shift both in how business is run and where the greatest opportunities lie.
With flexibility and mobility increasingly contributing to business success, the laptop can be your mobile office. Connect to a wireless network, log on to a cloud computing service, and you have everything you need to work from anywhere.
That means you can be more efficient, with minimal overheads. And that might enable you to undercut competitors and win more business.
Clearly, these soon-to-be-entrepreneurs get it. If your business hasn't yet investigated how mobility and the cloud can help you work more efficiently then perhaps now's the time. Otherwise you might soon find there's a young business owner stealing your customers.
Why smaller businesses are best placed for technology change
April 03, 2012
Against the backdrop of a challenging economic climate and unpredicted social and political upheavals, the need for agility and flexibility in business is paramount. Accompanying this turbulent environment is a tidal wave of technology change. It’s having an impact on every aspect of businesses operations, from the boardroom to the shop floor.
These trends are fuelling an unprecedented change to the way businesses and employees operate. And many organisations aren’t ready to adapt to the future workplace.
A power shift away from management
Recent Ricoh research – conducted via the Economist Intelligence Unit – demonstrates how power is shifting away from the traditional management hierarchy. This research found that 63% of business leaders are predicting that business decision-making will shift towards individual employees, as businesses move towards a decentralised structure by 2020.
Although lacking the financial resources of bigger companies, smaller businesses could find themselves at an advantage in this scenario. Their size and nature means they’re more likely to have a cohesive, collaborative management structure where the best ideas can rise to the top and be implemented into everyday operations.
Likewise, SMEs often have a more flexible approach to technology adoption. Having a smaller workforce makes IT innovation more commonplace. For instance, it’s easier to take an individual approach to IT provision, giving each member of staff access to the technology they’re most comfortable with.
Democratic data access
It is, however, difficult to shift decision-making to employees if they do not have access to the data and documents they need to take action. So if your business really wants to get ready for employee empowerment, you may need to rethink how your document processes work. The aim is to ensure important information is shared flexibly across your whole company.
The research also points towards a new, more collaborative approach to product and service development. Nearly 86% of business leaders agreed that project teams will typically include people from outside the organisation like customers, partners and communities.
This adds weight to the argument for shifting towards a connected business model where all these parties are linked and able to communicate effectively so they can develop the brightest ideas.
Despite the challenges that lie ahead, there’s a great opportunity here for companies willing to implementing more collaborative technologies. The tidal wave of technology change will give birth to a new generation of business success stories, empowered by customers and partners alike.
- Embrace employees who bring their own IT to work
- Choosing collaboration tools for your business
- Document management explained
Chas Moloney is a director at Ricoh UK.
Data loss kills businesses
March 08, 2012
Your data and IT infrastructure play a key role in the continued success of your business, regardless of the size of your company.
That’s underlined by a statistic I came across recently from the Department of Trade and Industry revealing that 70% of UK businesses that suffered a catastrophic data loss were closed within 18 months.
Bad IT is disrupting business
At Dell, we’ve just published a report in conjunction with Intel which looks at the server and storage needs of small businesses in Europe. We commissioned the research because we wanted to learn more about the attitudes of smaller companies towards servers and storage.
The report reveals that two-thirds (66%) of European small businesses are heavily dependent on their IT and almost a third (32%) of these say it is critical to their business. And most businesses are miles off achieving a failure-free IT system with 93% of respondents indicating that they have experienced IT problems which inhibited their ability to continue doing business.
We asked about how often disruption occurs, too: 17% claim it happens at least once a week (that must cause some serious problems), but the better news is that 40% say it only happens rarely.
Can new tech improve things?
We also looked at small business’ attitudes towards new technologies such as cloud computing. Our findings suggest adoption rates are low, but it would be interesting to investigate how many companies use cloud services without even realising it.
According to our research, only 17% of small businesses said they had started using cloud computing and 28% said they had no intention of moving their infrastructure to the cloud. Security and privacy were the most commonly cited concerns, although performance and availability were also significant.
You can read the full report, Manage Your Changing IT Needs, at Dell’s new online portal for European small businesses, Dell’s Small Business Centre.
Embracing technology but still lagging behind?
March 01, 2012
You might have seen our recent survey, in which 60% of respondents said they plan to invest in technology in 2012. Now a separate survey of 1,250 companies, run by the Epson Business Council, has found that 51% of British small businesses reckon IT is an integral part of their drive for business growth.
No surprises there, really. After all, technology plays a key role in almost every aspect of business.
However, when compared to their continental counterparts it actually looks like British businesses are lagging somewhat behind. In France and Germany, the same survey found 76% of businesses consider IT integral to growth. In Spain it was 73% and in Italy it was 68%.
Those differing attitudes were reflected in the adoption of technology too. The research showed that only 27% of British small businesses use smartphones and 38% use tablets.
Given the relative youth of tablet computers, it seems surprising that more businesses use those than use smartphones. But assuming that’s accurate, in France and Germany an even greater proportion of businesses said they use tablets. More than half, in fact.
Does that mean British businesses are getting left behind, or are they simple taking a more measured approach in adopting these new technologies?
There is one other possibility, of course. We’ve seen a growing trend of employees bringing IT to work, circumventing the IT department and hooking their own smartphones and tablets up to company systems. Could that account for some of the discrepancy?
Do these survey results match your own experiences? Leave a comment to let us know how you use tablets and smartphones.
Small business technology advice, tools and resources | IT Donut
Copyright © 2010-2016
