HPE provides insight, coaching and solutions deployment to help your very small, small, or medium-sized business maximize returns on your IT investments.
By Compute Experts guest blogger Ed Tittel, technology writer/consultant
Businesses face incredible challenges, as they strive to succeed in a busy, competitive, and always changing market. Businesses require confidence, foresight, and clarity so they can survive and thrive. Thus, they’re often better off if they don’t need to worry about managing their tools and technologies. Instead, their best results come when they focus on achieving long-term goals while also meeting near-term business challenges.
HPE and its partners are ready to help businesses with capable and affordable product and services. They have the expertise to work well with companies that range from very small (a single person) to midsized (a hundred to a few hundred employees). HPE also offers financing and buy-back plans to help cash-constrained operations fund vital technology refreshes and upgrades.
Small is beautiful—and the most active end of the business spectrum
Businesses at various sizes and scales require different approaches and mindsets. They also face unique sets of challenges that vary by size. Indeed, businesses at one end of the scale (1-10 employees) live in a world very different from the one somewhat larger businesses inhabit (100-499 employees, for example).
Small and midsize companies must remain tightly focused on the products and services they offer to their customers. HPE and its partners recognize that various SMB segments need different technology solutions—along with technical expertise, assistance, and financing. This means different offerings and approaches based on business size and market focus, where the following key segments make good sense, according to IDC analysts.
Three key divisions on the small-to-medium range
IDC analysts divide the lower end of the business spectrum into three distinct segments, as follows:
Microbusinesses (0-1 Employees): Microbusinesses are built around self-employed persons. In fact, they are mostly “zero employee” firms. As such, they often do not generate steady income streams (yet). They also encompass start-ups, gig workers, independent contractors, and professional services pros. Microbusinesses generally behave like individual consumers in their research and purchasing though they definitely have business-grade technology requirements.
Small Businesses (1-99 Employees): IDC says small businesses typically employ 1-99 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers across all locations. Inside this range, small office operations represent an important subgroup. These are comprised of 1-9 employees, where each component, smaller and larger, has unique technology needs. Small office operations (SOOs) are in every industry, especially professional services, retail, manufacturing, and technology. In SOOs, 1-9 employees handle day-to-day duties that are usually covered by 3-4 specialist roles in larger organizations.
Midsize Businesses (100-999 or 100-499 Employees): IDC asserts midsize businesses generally support from 100 to 999 FTE employees in the Americas and Japan. Elsewhere, such businesses top out at 499 FTE employees. IDC likens these organizations to teenagers: In need of less support than small businesses, but not yet large enough to field all the resources and capabilities that larger organizations do.
In midsized businesses, organizational structures change from flat to hierarchical: companies get “departmentalized” and staff roles are more specialized and focused. Midsize businesses can struggle with accumulated “technical debt.” This means technologies in use might be outdated, or unsuitable for increased complexity and functionality needs. At this level IT departments grow, with senior staff in the mix. Job roles start to specialize, but talent remains more generalized and less narrow than in IT teams at larger companies.
IT challenges by small-end segments
Each of these segments also faces its own set of business challenges, with overlap in some key areas, many related to how each one manages technology research, intake, and consumptions. Here’s how things play out for the three segments that IDC picks out of the small business spectrum:
Microbusinesses must deal with at least some, if not all, of these issues:
- Cash-poor: Only 1 of 5 of microbusinesses survive for a year, where shutdowns result from cash shortages during early growth stages.
- Time-strapped: Microbusinesses spread their time across all business functions, where the person behind the operation does everything they possibly can.
- Generalist expertise: Microbusinesses don’t know what they don’t know. Thus, actions and technology use are reactive rather than planned or strategic.
- Crafting value proposition(s): Early-stage microbusinesses may test value propositions for their offering, changing things up to attract new customers.
- Technology research comes from free advice: Microbusinesses get information where they find it for free: from sales pros, service providers, and online.
Small businesses face a similar but slightly different set of issues that include:
- Cash-constrained: As with microbusinesses, matching cash inflows to outflows is difficult, stressful, and inevitable.
- Juggling tasks and responsibilities: In smaller operations especially, its people must wear multiple hats and change them frequently.
- Better understanding of value propositions: Small businesses often involve at least one person (e.g., an owner or operator) who focuses on value for and from the business, and who guides day-to-day activity toward revenue and service/product delivery goals.
- Technology research comes primarily from free advice: As with microbusinesses, small businesses rely on sales pros, service providers, and free info sources.
Key challenges for midsize businesses reflect their increasing size and complexity:
- Competing priorities for IT and capital budgets: Each department has its own priorities and goals. Strong management and consistent vision are essential.
- Growing pains: Growth can cause stakeholder conflict; new leaders can complicate decision making. It adds time and effort in reaching consensus.
- Core processes: Behavior may be entrenched. They may be strong resistance to changes posed in adopting new processes and applications.
- New technology purchase research: These efforts involve active vendor discussions, with formal and informal advisors. Research sources grow to 5 or 6.
Despite the differences in scale among this smaller spectrum of business, HPE also recognizes that customer education and assistance are important for all of these different segments. Information must be short and business oriented. Where technical detail is necessary, it must include sufficient product data and details for things to make sense, so decision makers can work from the best possible inputs and information.
HPE also understands that coaching may sometimes be needed, especially for smaller organizations, to help them get on with business, and use technology to its best advantage. Above all, HPE and partners want to foster business growth and stability, by arming them with information and technology to ensure their success.
Specialized, focused content
Here’s the net-net from our market segment analysis for very small, small, and midsize businesses: HPE and its partners understand this huge and vital segment of the business spectrum. They offer specialized, focused content and materials—along with coaching and handholding when and where it’s needed—to help prospective buyers understand business benefits and value.
They also work with very small, small, and midsize businesses to understand and manage costs and other considerations, when choosing and buying technology to use at work, whatever their business size (and growth plans) might be.
For more information, visit HPE’s Small and Mid-Sized Business IT Solutions page.
Ed Tittel is a 30-plus year IT industry veteran who has worked as a developer, trainer, and technical evangelist. He’s also written over 100 books, and many articles for sites that include TechTarget, ComputerWorld, Tom’s Hardware, and GoCertify.
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