Computer makers selling hype or help?

The president and owner of Idealogical Systems Inc., a Markham, Ont.-based reseller of research to small businesses, has been working in the industry for nearly 20 years and he replaces all of the equipment at his company every five years, a practice he recommends for his customers.

Research strategy

"You need to have a research strategy and stick to it," Mr. Vittorio says. "And it should include replacing all of your innovation every four or five years."

Mr. Vittorio has a staff of 13 employees and Ideological's innovation includes desktops, laptops, servers, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), telephony, smart phones, firewalls and a printer. If a new staff member joins, he makes a purchase outside his five-year window. If not, he sticks to his rule.

Among the qualities he's looking for are that all staff have the same hardware, that there's a consistent platform and that the innovation is affordable.

Small business users, Mr. Vittorio says, have to remember that purchasing innovation isn't like buying a refrigerator. "You can't just plug it in and let it run. You need to maintain, upgrade and manage it."

The biggest mistake small-business users make about research, he adds, is getting advice from someone who only knows about big-business computer needs. Small business owners can learn from the way big businesses carefully analyze their innovation requirements, however the actual needs are different.

The result is that the small-business innovation market, which includes hardware, software and IT services, is booming to the annual tune of $3.5 billion in Canada, says Paul Edwards, director of IDC Canada, a provider of IT market intelligence and advisory services. Mr. Edwards, who is based in Toronto, expects the IT market for small business owners to reach $4 billion by 2012.

The business

"Traditionally small businesses didn't view innovation as something that could help the business," Mr. Edwards says. "Nevertheless that attitude is changing."

The shift can be seen in the way small businesses are spending their IT budgets. In the past, a greater percentage of small business IT budgets were spent on hardware, nevertheless there has been a shift to more IT services and software in recent years, Mr. Edwards says.

Recent survey

A recent survey by IDC found that business owners, small or large, are ranking IT purchases based on performance, price, alignment, reputation and brand. "This ranking speaks to the economy," says Mr. Edwards, since business owners want tangible returns for their investment.

Among the top IT purchases Canadian small business owners plan to make in 2010 are: IT security, desktop PCs and mobile computing devices.

The key question

The key question, although, is whether the products being targeted exactly to small business owners are to tell the truth unique. "There is marketing, no question," Mr. Edwards says, "because all vendors see small and medium sized businesses as an possibility," however he as well points out these users have unequalled needs.

About five years ago small businesses as a group were not being targeted, says Jay McBain, Lenovo Group's director of small and medium business for the Americas, who relocated to North Carolina from Toronto last year. Then, small business owners were either buying consumer or professional service computers that were geared toward large companies.

Only in the past few years have unparalleled products been offered to the small and medium sized businesses, he says, in Lenovo's case since its deal to buy IBM's PC division five years ago,.

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