Techaisle Blog

Current penetration of Marketing Automation in the Mid-Market is higher than Small Business across the board and determines overall ranking within SMB segments. The “Currently Use” below represents either standalone applications or functions that have been enabled within Marketing Automation Suites. Our research shows that the number of applications, or enabled functions, has steadily increased from 2 in 2010, to 5 in 2011 and survey results suggest that will move to between 7 and 8 as an overall average for SMBs across all size segments. Once a quick win is apparent there is a lot of enthusiasm to move forward with new efforts.

We have also uncovered some interesting trends that will be the subject of upcoming posts and our SMB Marketing Automation report and Updates. These trends include a fairly consistent relationship between the adoption of applications, an order of operations if you will, between several categories of cloud based services and applications; once SMBs are unfettered from the linear HW, SW, NW, Integration cycle, they are able to adopt technologies in a much more strategic way. For example, adopters of SaaS CRM start immediately investigating Business Intelligence options as soon as they are up-and-running with their CRM Dashboards and Reporting – this previously unavailable functionality spurs investment in an effort to get more visibility into other parts of the business. Also, opportunity in Integration Services abounds as SMBs commit to Cloud-based architecture.

Current Use Key Points:

Only Email Marketing, Segmentation and De-Duping are more widely used by Small Businesses in the Survey, Mid-Market companies are far more likely to use the rest of the features.

For those who use Marketing Automation, Email Marketing, Campaign Management, Message Personalization, SEO and CRM Integration are the most adopted Marketing Automation Functions – driven largely by more aggressive usage within mid-market companies.

While the market is maturing and relatively new, basic requirements like the Top 10 listed above are laying the foundation for all SMBs, but soon after there is a divergence as requirements of small businesses, typically building out their block-and-tackle marketing productivity by enabling individuals, evolve into a need to build effective teams by tightening up process and collaborative capabilities in Mid-Market companies.

Needs Evolve with Size of Company and Level of Maturity

While Web-based Lead Capture and Campaign ROI Reporting were common objectives between the Small Businesses and Mid-Market Firms, other in the Top Five were different; SBs looking for more Web-based functionality like Social Media Monitoring, SEO and Analytics Dashboard, while the MBs were looking for more data-oriented functionality such as De-duping, Segmentation and Lead Scoring.

Level of integration value added opportunity for these scenarios is also different, and obviously grows as companies look to improve collaboration.

 

In a small gathering of analysts and media , Dell showcased and unveiled its latest end-to-end desktop virtualization capabilities. The announcement was carefully crafted to time with the VMworld event being held in San Francisco next week. During the entire two hour “Chalk Talk” by Dell team, SMB was mentioned only three times and mid-market design point (Dell’s new mantra unfolded at its analyst event earlier in the year) was never mentioned at all. However, the importance, urgency, messaging and relevancy were clear and precise.

The announcements included Dell EqualLogic intelligent datacenter storage arrays with SSD tier & spinning media, Dell Wyse zero clients, and Dell DVS Enterprise reference architectures including vStart for VDI Reference Architecture – VMware View, Dell Mobile Clinical Computing - VMware AlwaysOn Point of Care™ Reference Architecture and New Dell DVS Enterprise –VMware Mobile Secure Desktop Reference Architecture.

Simplified, Manageable, Secure End-to-End Desktop Virtualization solution that SMBs will appreciate

Kicking off the discussions, Rafael Colorado, Marketing Director, Dell Desktop Virtualization Solutions, said, “Customers have to face complexity and try to implement desktop virtualization themselves and get stuck. Dell is trying to isolate components that create complexity”. The statement summarizes the technology pain-point being experienced by SMBs in adopting emerging technologies. Techaisle’s July 2012 survey of 3300 SMBs in US, UK, Germany found that 72 percent of SMBs want vendors to simplify technology and 61 percent are ignoring some technologies because they are finding the decision making to be too complex.

Hence, simplification in any form will be a step in the right direction. The same survey also showed that Virtualization is among the Top 5 relevant technologies for SMBs but is also among the Top 5 technologies most complex to understand. Dell is serving up simplification in the form of single SKU, an end-to-end virtualization solution that is manageable, secure, innovative, and intelligent and with one contact phone number. vStart for VDI Reference Architecture – VMware View runs as a workload on top of the Dell vStart stack, offering flexibility and efficiency enabling the organization to focus on driving enhanced business agility and delivering IT assets – rather than building an infrastructure. vStart for VDI 50 is already available from Dell for no-stress SMB deployments. The vStart for VDI 50, is a pre-configured solution for SMBs scaling from sub-100 up to 250 users per system and vStart for VDI 1000 for businesses that scales from 1000 up to 1,000 – 4, 000 users per system. In fact, Techaisle’s SMB VDI Adoption and Trends study shows that of all the SMBs planning to deploy VDI, 37 percent will have between 20 to 50 users.

Drivers of SMB Desktop Virtualization adoption and Dell’s solution components

The drivers of desktop virtualization are many, but the top five as mentioned in recent Techaisle survey of 1200 SMBs in the US are:

SMBs are planning to use VDI to reduce costs, better disaster recovery, and access of applications from anywhere and on any device in a secure infrastructure. Reduction in costs and better disaster recovery are considered to be inherent outcomes of virtualization deployments.

Dell EqualLogic Intelligent Data Center Storage Solution

Dell EqualLogic new storage arrays (available in Q4) are its densest hybrid storage arrays for tiered I/O in a single appliance. Through built-in auto-tiering algorithms, it creates automatic load balancing and puts out the most frequently used data on SSDs thereby “providing 360 percent improvement in array access and 75 percent reduction in latency lowering the manageability for desktop virtualization deployments”.  For a mid-market business, and specifically for verticals such as healthcare, financial services and even manufacturing these would be of great advantage. The solution component helps in cost reduction and application availability (1 and 2 above in chart).

Dell Wyse Zero Clients

Dell Wyse zero clients P25 and P45 designed specifically for VMware View implementations provides better manageability, security and mobile access to data and applications. The P25 uses Tera 2 processor and can move 50 million pixels to the screen. It supports Ethernet, wireless and fiber unlike other zero clients. The P25 can support 1920 x 1280-pxiel resolution for two displays or 2560 x 1600-pixel resolution for one display. The P45 can be used to support up to four displays. The solution component helps in application availability, mobile access and secure data (3, 4 and 5 above in chart).

Dell DVS Enterprise - VMware Mobile Secure Desktop and Dell Mobile Clinical Computing - VMware AlwaysOn Point of Care™ Reference Architectures

Dell and VMware have also jointly validated the Dell Mobile Clinical Computing for VMware AlwaysOn Point of Care™ offering with VMware View. Powered by Dell’s Mobile Clinical Computing solution, this architectural design incorporates a number of features to ensure data integrity as well as minimal disruption in computing service to the caregiver, including: constant monitoring, secure rapid access, single sign on and constant data replication across sites. With this validated architectural design, healthcare organizations now have unparalleled desktop and application reliability and availability – and secure rapid access from virtually any device.

Conclusion

SMBs are quickly recognizing the need to adopt virtualization within their businesses, however, they also find it complex to understand and implement. Complexity comes from inherent questions SMBs ask themselves and their advisors: What can virtualization do for us? Which virtualization technology is best for us? How should we implement it so that we get the most benefits in the shortest period of time? Who can help us implement it? Nevertheless as per Techaisle research, VDI market in the US alone will be US$588 million in 2016 growing at 41 percent CAGR.

Most SMBs rely on their local channel partners for maintenance & management of their IT infrastructure as well as for advice on new IT purchases. Therefore, Dell created a new Desktop Virtualization Solution competency based on feedback from  its network of 100,000 channel partners to provide them appropriate training and skills to sell and manage VDI for their local SMB customers.

In the meantime, with its latest desktop virtualization offerings Dell is continuing to execute on its vision of an end-to-end, best-of-breed solutions company.

Anurag Agrawal
Techaisle

VARs, ISVs and Service Providers (SPs) are going full throttle in providing cloud computing and mobility solutions to SMBs. Techaisle’s detailed Channel and corresponding SMB Research shows that there are some demand supply gaps between Cloud & Mobility offerings from channel partners and what the SMB customer needs. This gap between channel supply and SMB demand is illustrated below:



Red bars indicate a gap shown by a higher percentage of SMBs asking for solutions than Channels offering them, which creates shortage and channel opportunity, while the green bars indicate a higher percentage of Channels offering solutions than SMBs demanding; creating surplus capacity and increasing price pressure.

Higher demand-supply gap for Mobility Solutions

The demand-supply gap is higher for mobility solutions than cloud computing. SMBs are demanding mobility solutions; however, both the Channel Partners and their vendors have not yet developed sufficient expertise and solutions to supply them. Cloud computing technology has had longer to develop and mature while mobility has taken center stage (and resources) only in the last two years, resulting in a focus on access to application data rather than development of new applications. Techaisle research suggests that SMBs are particularly interested in mobile applications in the areas of Productivity Suites, Time and Billing Management, Social Media Marketing, Logistics and Field Service applications.

This is giving rise to many smaller, flexible and niche players that are providing point mobility solutions to SMBs, but their main weakness is channel reach. Conversely, large IT vendors with vast number of channel partners such as Cisco, Dell, HP, and IBM are still working on viable mobility solutions offerings and corresponding messaging. Many solutions available today from these vendors are targeted towards secure device management, BYOD enablement, and virtualized access to applications across multiple devices. Techaisle analysis shows that SMBs, although excited about these offerings, prefer to have them embedded in overall mobility solutions to reduce complexity in managing and administering multiple layers of IT.

Vertical Cloud Solutions

In the area of cloud computing, SMBs are requesting vertical industry solutions. In order to accomplish this, channels need to go beyond technology knowledge and really understand the dynamics of industries in which their customers operate and become industry subject matter experts. Channel partners would do well to focus on cloud solutions that help SMBs with their industry verticals, disaster recovery, accounting, and new forms of communication such as video conferencing, web conferencing and hosted VOIP. These combinations of cloud services make it easier for SMB customers to handle vendor relationships without having to manage separate account reps, billing and agreements across Infrastructure, Business Productivity, Communication and Industry Vertical Solution categories.

CRM is one of the most adopted cloud business application by SMBs and is also extensively offered by channels. Initiated by Salesforce.com and followed by SugarCRM, Zoho, Microsoft and many others, cloud CRM has already permeated the SMB landscape. IT Vendors like Dell are taking CRM to the next level by providing packaged solutions such as Salesforce.com CRM along with marketing automation from Pardot and Dell Boomi integration platform to increase the functionality, productivity and customization.

However, Techaisle research suggests that channel partners need to focus on delivering solutions that have higher relevancy to SMBs.

The above data is taken from Techaisle’s report titled “US Channel View – Challenges and Trends in Offering SMB Cloud, Mobility and Managed Services Solutions”. The US report is based on 604 channel interviews, and similar detailed surveys and analysis have been done for the Germany, UK, China, Brazil and India Markets.

Tavishi Agrawal
Techaisle

A Techaisle survey of 810 SMBs in the US shows that SMBs would ideally like to see Android applications running on Ultrabooks. Nearly 60% of SMBs that use smartphones have Android based smartphones. On an average, a small business has three Android based smartphones and a mid-market business has 26 Android based smartphones. These SMBs have become used to Android apps and would desire to have the same type of capability within Ultrabook.

 

Similar desire does not exist for iPhone apps because they do feel strongly that iPhone is a closed environment, whereas Android is open-sourced, hence, a higher likelihood of Android apps becoming available on a PC platform.

Anurag Agrawal
Techaisle