 Unified CommunicationsNetwork World's Unified Communications Newsletter, 10/23/07Messaging issues in the SMB spaceBy Michael OstermanWe have just published a major new report on messaging issues among small and midsized businesses, focusing on three major submarkets within the SMB space: very small organizations of up to 20 users, small organizations of 21 to 299 users and midsized organizations of 300 to 1,000 users. While these organizations are normally lumped together in the ‘SMB’ space, their requirements and experiences are often very different. As a well-known and insightful analyst focusing on the storage market said at the recent AppCon conference in San Jose, ‘whoever invented the SMB market should be shot.’ While I don’t think we need to come to blows with those who created this moniker, the ‘S’ part of this market is clearly distinct from the ‘MB’ part. For example:
* While 96% of midsized organizations have deployed antivirus capabilities at servers or gateways, only 68% of very small organizations have done so. Similarly, 91% of midsized organizations have deployed server- or gateway-based antispam capabilities, while only 65% of very small organizations have done so. * Users in very small organizations are six times more likely to use a consumer-oriented Webmail account for business use than are users in midsized organizations. * Very small organizations are twice as likely to have been impacted by a public instant messaging worm or virus relative to midsized organizations. * Very small organizations are 60% more likely than midsized organizations to consider hosting their e-mail using a hosted or managed service provider. * Very small organizations are seven times more likely to view spyware as not being a problem compared to midsized organizations. In short, vendors that focus on the ‘SMB’ market need to understand the diversity that exists in this space and not to view the sub-1,000 user market as a monolithic block. For example, midsized organizations are much more like their enterprise counterparts, whereas the real distinction in the SMB market occurs at around 250 or fewer users. If you have any questions on this report, please feel free to contact me.
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| Contact the author: For webinars or research on messaging, or to join the Osterman Research market research survey panel, go here. Osterman Research helps organizations understand the markets for messaging and directory related offerings. To e-mail Michael, click here. ARCHIVEArchive of the Unified Communications Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007 |
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