Technology consulting and research outfit Analysys Mason predicts that small and medium-sized businesses will increase their spending on technology in 2023 and will be confident in business performance.
The 145 million SMBs worldwide are expected to spend USD1.45 trillion on IT in 2023, of which 40 per cent will be from the Americas, 30 per cent from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 30 per cent from Asia–Pacific, driven by the post-pandemic trend towards digital transformation.
This represents a growth of 6.3 per cent compared with spending in 2022, down from the seven per cent year-on-year growth expected before the pandemic due to the impact of inflation and economic uncertainty. The predictions are based on the data in Analysys Mason’s SMB Technology Forecaster, which provides insights into SMB spending in 132 technology categories in 52 countries.
Analysys Mason’s predictions indicate a shakeup in how vendors and the reseller channel sell to SMBs. Its research has found that one in three SMBs plan to switch channel providers to gain enterprise and continue to invest in IT, although the decision-making process is taking longer. SMBs are carefully examined because they examine any new solution’s costs and benefits. SMB, behaviour has shifted significantly resulting in more demand for cloud-based and as-a-service solutions, which have become a key SMB strategy.
Analysys Mason Research Director Bob Takacs said that while there is concern about the broader economic environment, SMBs have a high degree of confidence in their own businesses given that they pulled through the pandemic successfully and are focused on how they can be more effective and set up for growth.
“They are looking for managed services and solutions that enable them to do that without managing their own IT environments,” he said.
The message to technology vendors and resellers is to focus on service and support while delivering clear messages around the business use cases of technology solutions. SMBs are looking for simple procurement and installation, tiered pricing and comprehensive support.
SMBs will continue to be concerned about cyber security thanks to device proliferation and ongoing geopolitical concerns. Spending on cyber-security solutions will increase from USD69 billion in 2022 to USD77 billion in 2023.
