Techaisle Blog

Techaisle’s survey of SMBs (1 to 999 employees) in Europe shows that mobility is addressing a clear business need and these firms are in turn responding with growing investments, especially in applications and solutions. 63% of small businesses (1-99 employees) & 74% of midmarket firms (100-999 employees) say that adoption of mobility solutions has contributed to business growth, up from 67% and 68% respectively from the previous year. Some SMBs have even experienced 2X growth as prior to mobility solutions deployment. Similarly, 37% of small businesses & 24% of midmarket firms say that adoption of mobility solutions has contributed to improved profitability.

39% of small businesses and 89% of midmarket firms have deployed one or mobility solutions and the average spend has increased by 29% for small businesses and 51% for midmarket firms. Survey data shows that service providers are becoming the top purchase channels of mobility solutions for both small and midmarket firms but there is also a distinct increasing influence of IT consultants.

Although much of the public debate around mobility involves hardware brands and feature sets and overall penetration rates, the real business benefit of mobility is delivered via applications that address specific task requirements within the business, and mobility solutions that overlay the management and security structures needed to integrate these apps with corporate IT systems.

Data drawn from the Techaisle 2017 SMB & Midmarket Mobility adoption survey shows that 2017 will see an explosion in the number of mobility application types used by US SMBs. The data presented in figure below shows that small businesses will go from a current average of seven mobility application categories in use to 14 in 2017, and midmarket firms will increase from an average of about six mobility app categories to 13. This 100%-ish growth pattern is demonstrated across most employee-size segments, with all but the 250-499 group anticipating a 2017 net increase in mobile app categories used of 86% or more.

Techaisle’s US SMB & Midmarket IT Security Adoption survey finds a mismatch between business confidence in mobility security and actual exposure to threats and mitigation actions and investments. Figure below illustrates respondent perceptions of current mobile security preparedness. In the US, roughly 20% of both small and midsized businesses report that they are “fully prepared and confident” with respect to mobile security, and more than twice as many state that they are “as prepared as can be,” while acknowledging that “requirements will change” in the future. Altogether, nearly two-thirds of small businesses and three-quarters of midmarket firms categorize themselves as being in one of these categories, with only 5% of small businesses and 2% of midmarket respondents reporting that they are “not very well prepared.”

IT markets tend to be complex and fast-moving – but even by IT industry standards, the endpoint device market in 2017 is extremely complex, and subject to significant and abrupt changes, as shown in Techaisle’s US SMB & Midmarket PC Purchase trends survey. The acceptance of multiple screens, coupled with the availability of new platform technologies, has created a market where “endpoint devices” span a wide range of device categories: desktop PCs, notebook PCs, tablets and smartphones, as well as thin clients, All-in-Ones, and other device types. Consider the following trends – some of which have played out over several years, and some of which are scant months old – and how they might affect buyers and suppliers of client technology this year: