HOUSTON — July 9, 2013 — Large
companies and SMBs use business social tools — defined as technologies
that enable business collaboration and communication, such as intranets,
video conferencing and social networks — in dramatically different
ways, leading to very different selling motions and partner
opportunities, according to new research released today by Microsoft
Corp. at its annual partner conference.
The study, conducted by research firm Ipsos among nearly 10,000 end
users at SMBs and large companies in 32 countries, found that, in
addition to using solutions such as intranets and instant messaging
services, SMBs are more likely to utilize multiple external social tools
for professional purposes. Large companies, on the other hand, are more
likely to deploy fewer, more prevalent collaboration tools.
“Social collaboration technologies represent a growing opportunity for
partners with strong demand from end users at both large companies and
SMBs,” said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner
Group, Microsoft. “However, each segment uses these technologies in
different ways, with SMBs seeing public FTP/cloud storage, external
social networks, blogging platforms while large companies clearly prefer
intranets, team sites and videoconferencing. These differences
represent huge opportunities for partners, and we’re committed to
helping them capitalize on the potential in this space. We believe
Microsoft has the expertise, the portfolio and the vision to make the
future of workplace collaboration a reality.”
Other unique differences called out in the study include the following:
- Although the top use for social tools in both large companies and SMBs is communicating with colleagues (selected by seven in 10 of all end users surveyed), those at smaller companies use social tools for a broader range of tasks, including communicating with customers, clients or vendors and researching customers, clients and competitors. In contrast, end users are large companies are more likely to use social tools for finding an expert of information within their company.
- Barriers to adoption still exist across large companies and SMBs. For both groups, security concerns (71 percent of end users at large companies vs. 60 percent of SMB end users) and productivity loss (58 percent at large companies vs. 59 percent at SMBs) were identified as the top risks.
- End users at large companies are more likely to say their IT department can be a barrier to using social tools (41 percent at large companies vs. 36 percent at SMBs).
- Those at large companies are also more likely to say social tools are restricted at their workplace because of concerns about company image (27 percent vs. 21 percent at SMBs) or data loss (25 percent at large companies vs. 22 at SMBs).
“The consumerization of IT has changed the fundamental way in which
businesses communicate, with enterprise social tools now following a
‘bring your own device’ model into the workplace,” said Rebecca
Sizelove, associate vice president, Ipsos Public Affairs. “However,
there are distinct differences between how SMBs and large companies
adopt these tools, and technology decision-makers still require a
certain amount of education around the benefits social tools can
provide. This creates opportunities for technology vendors to educate
and sell to businesses of all sizes.”
About the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference
The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is a four-day event
taking place July 8–11 in Houston that celebrates the accomplishments of
the company’s global partners and gives a preview of the coming year
for Microsoft. This year’s event attracted more than 14,000 attendees
from 150 countries around the world.
Clips of executive keynote speeches and details on additional news at WPC are available at http://www.digitalwpc.com or the Microsoft Partner Network Virtual Newsroom at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/partnernetwork.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news.
Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of
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journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or
other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.
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