The Year Ahead: SMB Technology Trends

A thoughtful, well-documented analysis of the technology trends that will have an impact on small businesses in the next year. They include the fairly obvious (mobile commerce takes off) and the not so obvious ("transition to the insight economy gets a bit easier.")

"1. Mobile Commerce Lifts Off: Today, mobile commerce is in its infancy, but with the Internet in our pocket or purse, it’s only a matter of time before it takes off. As big retailers and companies invest to make mobile commerce easier, more convenient and more secure, the pressure mounts for SMBs to develop mobile commerce capabilities to stay competitive. The SMB Group’s 2010 Mobile Solutions Study reveals strong SMB plans for mobile web sites, payments, product and service tracking, document sharing and sales/support/service in the upcoming year. However, key drivers for mobile commerce and adoption plans vary by industry, phase of business and other factors. Vendors will need to tailor messaging and solutions to resonate with these different requirements. As SMBs become more dependent on mobile commerce, they will also look for ways to integrate mobile commerce with ERP/accounting and CRM systems to save time and increase efficiency.

2.SMBs Demand that Vendors Bring Order to Social Media Chaos. SMBs are jumping on the social media bandwagon to help attract new customers and improve customer relationships. But managing marketing, branding and reputation across and between social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) and other digital marketing venues (email marketing, search engine marketing, etc.) as well as more traditional CRM solutions can be a nightmare—and surfaces as a top technology challenge in our 2010 Routes to Market Study. In 2011, SMBs will demand converged solutions that streamline inbound and outbound interactions across different channels, and help measure their effectiveness. Vendors are stepping up efforts to help meet this challenge. For instance, BatchBlue 'Social CRM' integrates contacts sales and social media feeds for small businesses; HubSpot’s inbound marketing helps companies create, optimize and promote content to 'get found,' convert and close more business, and link to relevant conversations across the Web in a unified dashboard; Sage CRM Solutions integrates social media with opportunities and contacts to help sales, marketing and support people prioritize and focus sales activities and marketing campaigns more effectively; and Salesforce.com makes Chatter available for free to all Salesforce users to integrate profiles, groups, online document sharing, task management, contacts, web forms, status updates, newsfeeds with CRM."