Microsoft conducted an investigation in 2010 regarding the growth of SMEs and their use of technology during recession. The global SME IT and hosted IT index of Microsoft revealed better performance of SMEs that used IT solutions and hosted services for business productivity.
The research revealed that there was an increase in revenues in 2009 in many SMEs during recession. In 2008, the increase was found in 39 percent of SMEs. However, the increase in revenues in 2009 was found among 52 percent of SMEs.
IT was considered as critical solution by 55 percent of SMEs. Among 60 percent of these companies, growth of revenues was observed in 2009. Certain companies revealed that IT was not important for the business and the revenue increase was found in less than 29 percent of them.
The study also indicated there was a growth in use of hosted services like cloud computing. Reduction of costs and IT management are some of the benefits of this technology. In addition, it also helps in increasing business value, competitiveness, and productivity. It revealed that more than 40 percent of the respondents used hosted or cloud computing technology. Among them, 30% of increase of revenues was seen. However, revenue decline was observed among 90% of respondents that had not used hosted technology.
The hosted software was used by 65% of the SMEs increasing awareness of hosted services. It was found that the software was used by only 44% of SMEs. Based on the business needs, there had been an increase in use of software and services such as websites, e-mail, and e-commerce.