Understanding UK SMBs' Procurement Strategies and Outsourcing Preferences (Customer

Understanding UK SMBs' Procurement Strategies and Outsourcing Preferences (Customer Focus)

Published Date: April 2008

Published By: Datamonitor

Page Count: 19

Order Code: R313-31809

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DATAMONITOR VIEW: CATALYST; SUMMARY; METHODOLOGY; ANALYSIS; Introduction; SMBs show traditional attitudes to selecting IT vendors; Standard of customer service is the most important factor when selecting an IT vendor; SMBs are more likely to trust a national telecoms provider or a national ISP for managed services; Many different vendors are supplying the UK SMB market; SMBs are generally happy with their service providers; A relatively low proportion of SMBs currently oursource their IT services; A quarter of SMBs outsource their business applications; The majority of SMBs manage their firewalls in house; Security is a key consideration in IT outsourcing decisions; The area that is most outsourced is security updates and patching; The most pressing technical requirement for SMBs is security; SMBs look to vendors to provide security and Internet connectivity; The majority of SMBs have some form of risk mitigation in place; The main reasons preventing SMBs from outsourcing are cost and loss of control; Cost and loss of control are the main reasons preventing SMBs from outsourcing the management of critical applications; A small proportion of SMBs can foresee a time when their IT function is fully managed externally; SUMMARY: Outsourcing is still a relatively low priority for SMBs in the UK
APPENDIX: Definitions; Extended methodology; Further reading; Ask the analyst
List of Tables: Table 1: What is most important to you when selecting an IT vendor / partner?; Table 2: Which type of company would you most like to do business with and partner for your managed service requirements?; Table 3: From whom do you currently purchase IT solutions / components?; Table 4: How do you rate each provider in terms of customer service and value?; Table 5: How is your firewall currently managed?; Table 6: Which of these day to day responsibilities would you most like to get rid of?; Table 7: What areas do you perceive as having the most pressing technical requirements for your business today?; Table 8: What IT services might you look to a vendor to provide?; Table 9: Do you have anything in place to mitigate against the following risks?; Table 10: The alternative to maintaining your business critical applications on servers on your premises is to have them managed in a secure data centre. What is stopping you doing this?; Table 11: Could you foresee a time when your IT function is managed in its entirety by an external specialist? If you are unsure what would that depend on?
List of Figures: Figure 1: When selecting an IT vendor the most important factors are the standard of customer service and SLAs; Figure 2: SMBs are least likely to consider a local computer shop for managed services; Figure 3: BT is the most popular vendor for network services, managed server hosting and telephony; Figure 4: SMBs rate their providers as having a better level of customer service than value; Figure 5: Only a small proportion of SMBs choose to outsource the management of their firewalls; Figure 6: Email issues is the responsibility SMBs would most like to pass on to a third party; Figure 7: Security is the most pressing technical requirement; Figure 8: SMBs expect vendors to provide security and Internet connectivity services; Figure 9: Loss of data and power outages are seen as the risks most necessary to mitigate against; Figure 10: 40% of SMBs state cost as the strongest reason preventing them from outsourcing; Figure 11: The majority of SMBs do not imagine that their IT services will ever be fully outsourced