Tag: SMEs

SMEs feeling optimistic

Happy man portrait

An American Express study has found most small business owners have expressed their intent to grow their businesses over the next 12 months.

The survey, involving 1,000 UK small business owners and decision-makers, revealed that 79 per cent of small company owners aim to develop their businesses, a 13 percentage point increase year-over-year.

The survey also found that the same number say their firm is in good form compared to 74 per cent a year ago.

Despite the harsh market environment many small businesses continue to encounter, over two-thirds (64 per cent) believe that business performance in the fourth quarter of 2023 will be better than the previous two years. Only 15 per cent of those polled thought things would worsen.

SMEs staff fear for their jobs in security breaches

Security outfit Avast has found that almost 40 percent of small business employees think that a staff member who unknowingly clicks a malicious link would be held personally responsible for a data breach, which could be encouraging employees to keep quiet rather than flagging a potential threat.

The survey, consisting of 2,016 office-based workers in the UK and US, explores the current cybersecurity awareness levels among small business employees during a period of elevated risk brought to pass by the ongoing pandemic.

SMEs will demand MDR from suppliers

The increasing number of sophisticated cyber threats will lead to a rise in demand for Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solutions from small and medium businesses.

According to Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Global Managed Detection and Response Market, Forecast to 2024, the market size is poised to grow at a CAGR of 16.4 percent  between 2019 and 2024, with revenues expected to reach $1.9 billion.

Security channel needs to better educate SMEs

Kaspersky research has found that the security channel has its work cut out for it convincing SMEs about the need to improve their data protection.

In a report, Kaspersky revealed that 47 percent of UK businesses expected to be attacked at some point in the next two years and more than found that 65 percent were prepared to admit that their organisations were complacent about protecting customer data.

That left users in various states of vulnerability with the risks that they could be breached higher than they should be. The costs of a problem were not only financial but would include longer-term brand damage that would be a major problem for SMEs.

UK government buys £14.2 billion from SMEs

The UK government has spent a record £14.2 billion with SMEs over the 2018 and 2019 years – the highest since government records began in 2013.

According to data from the Cabinet Office, this figure is £1.8 billion more than the previous year.

Oliver Dowden, Cabinet Office minister said: “We’re committed to using the power of government spending to support small businesses across the country and this is something I’ve championed in my time as a minister – so it’s great to see these figures heading in the right direction.”

Small businesses need ‘cyber security champions’

Small businesses should train up “cybersecurity champions” to better protect themselves from the threat of cyber attacks, new government research has suggested.

A report by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) claimed that in the case of more than half (57 percent) of businesses who had suffered a recent breach, the incident had first been spotted by staff rather than by software.

Large discounts on sites like Groupon hurt sales

Large discounts on sites like Groupon hurt the sales of small to medium-sized businesses, according to research from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).

This is because, for less well-known merchants, discounts are often considered a signal of low quality.

The researchers monitored the hourly sales of 19,978 product and service deals listed on Groupon.com in 172 cities in the

Digital transformation will make SMEs unrecognisable

A Ricoh Europe report claims that the SME/SMB arena is undergoing massive changes due to digital transformation.

The research found that a quarter of SMEs expect to be selling different products and services in the next five years and are looking for help innovating their businesses now to make sure they can deliver those sorts of changes.

There might be different degrees of commitment to change, but 91 percent of those quizzed by the printer maker accepted that they would be changing products and services to some extent in the next few years.

Apple SMEs more vulnerable to Ransomware attacks

SMEs who base their systems around Apple software and hardware are more likely to be taken down in ransomware attacks according to a new study.

Datto Businesses third annual Global State of the Channel Ransomware Report said that there was a fivefold increase in the number of MSPs reporting ransomware attacks on macOS and iOS platforms over the last year.

Poor internet connections cost UK £11 billion

DaisyA survey commissioned by the Daisy Group estimates that slow net connections cost the UK a staggering £11 billion a year.

The research was carried out by One Poll on Daisy’s behalf, and surveyed 2,000 adults.

According to the report, 72 percent of the estimated 30 million workers in the UK use the net as part of their daily tasks.

Thirty nine percent of the respondents said home net connections were “much faster” than the ones used for work.

Daisy product manager Jan Wielding said too many businesses used basic ADSL connections aimed at home users. “These are the businesses that struggle to cope with the high bandwidth demands of software and apps that workers use.:

Wielenga said this was unacceptable, particularly when fibre and dedicated Ethernet are cheaper than ever and widely available.

Over 60 percent of the people surveyed said they used their smartphones for non related work activities. And when the business net goes down, nine per cent scurry to see if there are other jobs going, using their smartphones.

The survey appears to show that the average British worker loses 38 hours of productivity a year because of downtime or slow access – meaning something like £494 worth of productivity is lost a year.

Wielenga said that there is a lack of awareness in small to medium enterprises that a government sponsored Super Connected Cities scheme will subsidise the the cost of a much faster connection.

Daisy is hosting a webinar on the 26th of March, in conjunction with the CBI, to help SMEs through the maze.

SMEs want investigation into Capita

parliamentA report said 12 small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are asking the government to investigate IT giant Capita for allegedly damaging their business.

According to the Independent, the Cabinet Office has started an investigation into Capita after the group of SMEs alleged that it was exploiting their suppliers over a civil service training scheme.

Capita secured a £250 million deal three years ago to provide civil service training in a move that was intended to open the public sector to SMEs.

But the SMEs have made a number of allegations including paying invoices late, taking big fees for training contracts, and hiring sub contractors to work directly for Capita rather than farming the work out to the small businesses.

Capita is also alleged to have introduced non competing clauses for SMEs involved in business which precluded them getting work without its permission.

The Cabinet Office said it was taking the allegations seriously. It said government policy is to support SMEs. Capita said it had changed its policies on late payment and it had abandoned its policy of non compete clauses.

Broadband essential to SMEs

oldphoneA survey has revealed that Britain’s small to medium enterprises (SMEs) still have worries about growing their businesses in 2015.
The survey, commissioned by TalkTalk Business, asked 1,000 British small businesses how optimistic they are about revenues and growth this year.
Of those surveyed, 27 percent are “very optimistic”, but of those remaining, 20 percent don’t think 2015 will be a bumper year.
Obviously TalkTalk has an agendum with this survey and the results showed close to 90 percent of the SMEs believed broadband connectivity is vital to their businesses.
The top five priorities the survey discovered for SMEs is that they wanted to grow revenues; improve their teams’ morale; expand their businesses; cut costs; and invest in new technology.
TalkTalk has launched a broadband package aimed at SMEs, and figures it has released claim that its business package is cheaper than BT Business Unlimited, Plusnet unlimited and Chess essential max broadband.

 

Tech entrepreneur wins gong

Lawrence Jones, UK FastA Manchester man who runs a small to medium sized business (SMB) is recognised  in the 2015 New Year’s Honours list.

Lawrence Jones (pictured) runs hosting and colocation firm UKFast and received an MBE for his services to the UK’s digital economy.

Jones said his company specialises in helping UK SMEs by providing small firms with high end tech that are normally affordable only to enterprises.

He said: “We, the SMEs, are the ones that are paying tax, not the big boys with the clever tax planning.”

Small companies drive the UK economy, he said. His 15-year old company turns over £30 million a year and has 200 employees.

He said: “As an entrepreneur you find yourself carrying on regardless, working your hardest, even when there are not many people who pat you on the back. I am tremendously proud to be British and to get an honour like this makes all of the hard work worthwhile.”

* Inventor Trevor Baylis has received a CBE in the Honours list. He invented the Baygen wind up radio, and received the award for services to intellectual property.

SMEs held back by poor networks

whiffyA survey said that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are worried about poor networking and security.

The survey, commissioned by Netgear which has something of an axe to grind, chose 500 companies with between one and 250 employees showed the SMEs’ concerns.

Three quarters of the firms said having a wireless network is essential to their business.  That figure rises to 84 percent for firms hiring more than 100 people.

A large number rely on wireless networks with 74 percent saying it makes the company more productive, and 75 percent saying it improves customer services.

But one in three firms surveyed said they had struggled to install an effective and secure wireless service.

And 31 percent thought about dropping all their IT wireless plans after they’d had bad experience with quality and reliability. A third worried about data security while a quarter weren’t sure how to introduce wi-fi into existing IT infrastructure.