By Lindsay Brown

In today’s digital age, technology is a fundamental aspect of any business's success. However, while most companies have an IT team in place, many still struggle to bridge the gap between their business performance and IT operations. This can lead to internal pain points such as inefficient processes, poor data management, and security breaches – and may also adversely affect your customers.

To avoid these pitfalls, it is critical for businesses to work in tandem with their IT team to identify gaps and pain points in their operations. This ensures that technology is implemented strategically and effectively, addressing the needs of the business and the customer.

Role of IT in business growth

Historically, the role of IT may have been treated as more of a support function with limited impact on critical business operations. Today, it wields a substantial influence on the growth trajectory of a business.

We commissioned market research firm Frost & Sullivan to conduct a survey on the perspectives of more than 1,000 IT decision-makers last year from companies with less than 1,000 employees across markets and industries.

The survey found the three main business objectives of SMEs this year, to be increasing revenue (38 per cent), improving operational efficiencies (29 per cent), and increasing customer satisfaction (28 per cent).

Prioritising IT could be the game-changer in achieving these goals. Working with various SMEs over the years, I’ve seen first-hand how they’ve benefited with better productivity and customer satisfaction from investing in the right IT tools.

It is encouraging then that the survey also uncovered the influence that IT teams now have in the purchase of tools – 47 per cent for IT support and management tools, 39 per cent for communication and collaboration, and 37 per cent for customer engagement tools.

A study by International Data Corporation predicts that by 2025, 65 per cent of Asia-based organisations will prioritise cloud infrastructure as their primary location for data storage and analysis. Additionally, by 2027, digital infrastructure is projected to generate 43 per cent of business revenue in the Asia Pacific region.

As technology advances, IT will undoubtedly play an integral role in ensuring the safety and resilience of these digital spaces.

Mixed perceptions of SMEs with regards to IT

Up to 65 per cent of IT teams have responded that they have seen workloads surge in the last year, owing to added responsibilities, and complications arising from remote/hybrid work. Survey respondents also indicated that their time is mostly wasted on operational tasks such as supporting employees working remotely/in hybrid mode, calling the customer support, and in supporting and troubleshooting employee issues.

Some 92 per cent of our survey respondents say that reducing IT burden is an important initiative. With 64 per cent seeing an increase in IT budgets by almost 60 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021, more than half (56 per cent) consider IT spending an investment. However, 42 per cent remain unconvinced and still perceive it as a cost; so much so that value for money is the main driver when choosing new IT software, especially among SMEs with sub 50 employee size (41 per cent).

In Malaysia, the recent announcement of various programmes and financial assistance such as the SME Automation and Digitalisation Facility (ADF) with fund size of RM1 billion and the SME Digitalisation Grant Scheme worth RM100 million is good news for the local SMEs.

And while there are such supporting initiatives in place, there also needs to be an urgent shift in the way we perceive IT and recognise its potential to help build a resilient and successful business for the future.

IT consolidation can alleviate the burden of IT teams

Encouragingly, our survey found that 83 per cent of SMEs consider the consolidation of tools an important initiative for 2023, with the top three reasons being an increase in employee productivity (50 per cent), ease of management for IT teams (49 per cent), and cost savings (41 per cent).

To achieve these, 41 per cent plan to switch vendors. However, switching vendors can be a challenging task with so many choices out there. Having been through this myself, I would say that the top factors for any vendor-customer relationship are reliability and trust. The majority of our respondents also say that they work with managed service providers (MSPs) as they provide trusted advice on right technology, and help in the deployment process and maintenance of the software.

And it’s not just IT that benefits from consolidation. When it comes to customer support, we found that on an average, SMEs use two different platforms/solutions to manage all customer communication, whether its via phone, SMS, social media, or email. A consolidated tech stack can help offer a more streamlined customer support which can improve the overall customer experience.

It’s clear that the role of IT in SMEs is more important these days, although there is still a gap when it comes to investing in it. More SMEs do recognise that by consolidating IT, they can reduce the burden on their IT teams and better focus on more strategic initiatives that align with the company's business objectives. I am confident that in time to come, more SMEs will be taking more decisive steps to narrowing the gap in prioritising IT spend.

-- BERNAMA

Lindsay Brown is Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific and Japan, at GoTo.