Techaisle Blog

Techaisle’s US SMB & midmarket IoT adoption trends data survey shows that use of IoT today may be low within small businesses generally, and particularly within microbusinesses, it is more widespread within midmarket firms, with roughly 30% reporting that they are currently using IoT. As is often the case with emerging technologies, production-grade usage levels are not yet quite as high as the data would appear to suggest. Detailed perspective on SMB use of IoT is gained by examining the nature of current deployments and the survey finds that there is a five-level IoT progression.

As the figure below shows, just over half of SMBs who are using IoT today are at one of the two bottom levels: they either have a limited number of sensors feeding isolated systems, or are using IoT devices to enable remote monitoring/service/control. SMBs who reported that they are using IoT to “provide basic information” or are in an “ad hoc pilot” are included in these first two levels.

They are here. Techaisle's annual SMB and Midmarket Top 10 IT Priorities, IT Challenges and Business Issues. This is the 5th year of Techaisle tracking at a WW level and is much sought after by IT vendors, channels and media. For 2017, Techaisle investigated 15 different technology areas, each with several sub-technology categories, 20 different IT challenges and 20 different business issues.

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When compared with 2016 the list for 2017 SMB and Midmarket Top 10 IT Priorities, IT Challenges and Business Issues reveals major changes – digitalization has become an IT priority and supporting digital marketing/workplace an IT challenge, improving workforce productivity as a business issue has catapulted to the top, enabling mobile workforce is among the top 3 IT challenges and Collaboration, Cloud, Mobility and Security are the IT priorities. Cloud orchestration has also appeared for the first time in the list of IT challenges as IT is finding it necessary to orchestrate across the entire enterprise to deliver business infrastructure via the cloud.

For the last decade Techaisle has been providing a unique and an unparalleled perspective on SMBs & Channel partners – deeply-rooted in data and industry knowledge, thereby enabling IT suppliers shape their market strategy.

Techaisle is the only SMB & Channel partner focused research organization that is helping clients in:

• connecting-the-dots across technology areas and their relevance to end-customers
• identifying SMB routes-to-market
• understanding infrastructure solution trends in the face of growing cloud adoption
• showcasing IT suppliers’ thought leadership and promoting through email marketing
• establishing insights into competitive positioning

Each of the below – from Connecting the Dots to Competitive Positioning – has been a point of engagement with Techaisle - through Annual Subscription services, Advisory Services or Custom Primary Research.

Techaisle has not only been a leader in providing thought leadership but has also been a leader in identifying trends much ahead of others who really become fast-followers.

Clients leverage a respondent network of over 900,000 ITDMs and BDMs and 250,000 channel partners in over 20 countries for their custom primary research and marketing outreach requirements.

Through Techaisle’s industry leading research, the annual subscription services have been fulfilling need for clear insight into evolving solution areas needed by both established and emerging suppliers. Clients are able to access market research reports, newsletters, perspectives and white papers for use within the entire organization.

To learn more about Techaisle please visit:
Techaisle Subscription Services
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It would be unusual to find a “Chief Strategy Officer” or an equivalent group dedicated solely to long-term planning within a small business, or even inside most midmarket enterprises. For the most part, a small team of executives shares responsibility for both charting the company’s direction and managing its daily operational activities. This can make it difficult for SMBs to separate the strategic from the tactical – but it has the advantage of ensuring that ‘big picture’ priorities are reflected in the day-to-day actions taken by the management team.

This direct, visceral link between business imperatives and daily activities has some interesting implications for IT suppliers. Because the business decision maker (BDM) is often responsible for IT-related decisions, the IT supplier needs to ensure that its messaging is relevant to BDM ‘care-abouts’ – and because the BDM is often the source of both strategic and tactical direction, it is important for the IT supplier to root marketing messages and activity in an understanding of how their offerings, and/or the solutions in which their offerings are positioned, address the high-level objectives of the SMB customer.

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