This article originally appeared in the December 2021 issue of Security Business magazine. When sharing, don’t forget to mention Security Business magazine on LinkedIn and @SecBusinessMag on Twitter.
Small-to-medium sized business (SMBs) have been forced to adapt to unprecedented circumstances as public health measures were put into place at the start of the pandemic – some of which continue in some regions even today. In doing so, businesses have reevaluated how to serve customers in new ways and keep employees engaged and productive.
The move to a remote workforce means provisioning devices and deploying new software to keep employees working at home productively and maintaining operations.
The latest SMB primary study from Parks Associates, New SMB Landscape: Devices, Communication, Security, Support, surveyed 1,000 small businesses (defined as those having fewer than 100 employees) to better understand how the pandemic has impacted their business, their spending on technology products and services, and what new opportunities have arisen to better serve this market.
Job One: Survival
First and foremost, SMBs are focused on staying alive; in fact, 29 percent of small businesses surveyed report that they were at risk of going out of business due to COVID-19. Of course, the study did not necessarily capture data from any business that had already closed up shop by September.
Interestingly, those businesses who said they are at risk of going out of business are more apt to report a high likelihood of spending on IT products and services in the next six months; in fact, interest in purchasing new IT services for these companies is triple and sometimes quadruple the rate of SMBs not at risk of going out of business. These services include technical support services for employees working remotely, such as better home broadband access for employees, premium conferencing or communication services, cloud storage, and tools for communicating with customers.
Of course, a key question is, what does the future really look like? This is still a fluid situation, and it is hard to know exactly where the chips will land and how an SMB will be forever changed by the pandemic. SMBs themselves are torn on the future outlook, with about one-third reporting and expecting no significant changes; one-third expecting changes to be temporary; and one-third saying changes will be permanent.
In order to navigate these uncertain waters, SMBs need support and flexibility from their vendors to pivot their operations to whatever new market realities are ahead of them.
IT Services in Demand
There are three main areas where SMBs are adjusting – and where their need for technology products and services is most acute: Adjusting to a distributed workforce; serving customers in a new way (often digitally, remotely, via e-commerce, etc.); and rethinking brick-and-mortar on-site business.
Among the SMBs with at least some employees working remotely, the top concerns are remote employee IT set-up and, ultimately, productivity. More than half are concerned about the security of an employee’s home network, and nearly the same number are concerned about staff having enough home bandwidth. The SMBs that are at risk of going out of business are even more likely to express these concerns.
These findings indicate a clear need for IT services and products for this new distributed workforce. ISPs offering both business and home internet services are in a unique position to bridge this gap, and many are starting to offer and highlight second home internet lines as a possible solution to keep business traffic at home separate from all other home network use.
Additionally, companies specializing in commercial data security have an entirely new business opportunity from the same customers in addressing data security vulnerabilities on home networks.
On-site Networking Improvements Needed
SMBs operate from various locations depending on the business, but a common need is simply rock-solid connectivity. When asked intentions to spend on multiple IT solutions over the next six months, nearly 40% of SMBs indicated an intention to spend on their Wi-Fi networks, and 37% indicated an intention to spend on cybersecurity services.
Notably, spending intentions for premise physical security are not far behind. Integrators would be wise to offer a combination of network configuration and support, advanced threat detection, and premise security services as key value-added service opportunities for SMB customers.
Commerce Issues
COVID-19 has presented many challenges to serving customers, particularly regarding communication, but also visiting customers and physically delivering the product or service. SMBs report that their communication with customers is challenging, and as most in the security integration community have felt, COVID-19 is inhibiting supply chain reliability.
Additionally, for nearly one in five SMBs, company websites and apps are not up to the task. The push to conduct nearly all business online for at least some of the year and a half has exposed areas of weakness in business websites and apps. SMBs need partners who can help them think and operate as an online-first business. The top areas SMBs indicate they are likely to spend money in the next six months is on advertising, developing, or updating the organization’s website and building better customer communication tools.
