Small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) are under strong innovation pressure. Thus, 24% of company owners believe that in the coming two years their businesses will be faced with far-reaching changes, while another 43% consider these changes to be of medium extent. For this reason, for more than one in four companies (27%) the modernization of business processes is a crucial part of their business strategy.
These are the findings of a joint survey called »E-Business im Mittelstand – IT und Innovationen für Unternehmer« by IBM Germany and impulse. Further findings: 54 % of SMEs plan to carry out procurement online in the future. Almost half of all companies (48%) intend to digitalize their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and 41% of them intensively work on innovative mobile applications.
There was another survey by TechConsult carried out on behalf of IBM and ‘impulse’ in the course of which more than 1000 owners of companies employing up to 1000 people were interviewed. This survey revealed that 51% expect their turnovers to increase as a consequence of internet-based business models, whereas in 2006 just 46% of owners thought so. At the same time, many company owners think that e-business offers further saving potential. Thus, owners of small and medium-sized companies expect to cut costs in business units such as organization (56%), sales (47%), procurement (41%) and stock keeping (25%).
The complete study is available for free-of-charge download. 