SMB market spending big on software, services
by Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 9/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
For the past several years, software vendors have been circling the small and medium business (SMB) sector like hungry wolves. A recent survey from Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research says there's been good reason for such behavior. Drawing from the responses of nearly 800 technology decision makers, 25 percent of SMBs have begun, or are planning, a major application deployment or upgrade this year. Half of those projects involve applications that support industry-specific processes, with a goal of making core business functions more efficient.
SMBs also are relying more heavily on implementation services, with 40 percent saying they will sign on for such services when purchasing software. That's a jump from the 24 percent who said they would buy services in a similar survey last year. It's also good news for software vendors, many of which have been looking at services as a more reliable source of continuing revenue than applications.
