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Intuit: 78% of Small Businesses Will Fully Adapt to Cloud by 2020
A new Intuit (INTU) and Emergent Research report described the impact of cloud technology as it is progressively adapted by more and more small businesses.
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A new Intuit (INTU) and Emergent Research report showed the cloud "is redefining the small business playing field."
A new Intuit (INTU) and Emergent Research report showed the cloud “is redefining the small business playing field.”
The report, titled “Small Business Success in the Cloud,” described the impact of cloud technology as it is progressively adapted by more and more small businesses.
“We are reaching an inflection point where small businesses are seeing that cloud technology can not only make them more efficient but can actually help them transform their approach to doing business. Whether it is the way they hire employees, the way they run their back-office or the way they bring their products and services to market, the cloud is reshaping the way they operate,” an Intuit spokesperson told Talkin’ Cloud.
Researchers predicted 78 percent of small businesses will fully adapt to the cloud by 2020, up from 37 percent in 2014.
The report also revealed four small business personas could emerge:
Plug-in players — These small businesses will plug into cloud services providers (CSPs) that deliver custom solutions, giving small business operators more time to focus on mission-critical areas of their businesses.
Hives — Hives will include small businesses that operate virtually with employees across the globe.
Head-to-headers — These small businesses will use cloud platforms and services to compete head-to-head with major firms.
Portfolioists — Portfolioists will consist of freelancers who use the cloud to bring together multiple income streams and create a career portfolio.
Intuit said the small business personas demonstrate how the cloud is creating a new era of opportunity for entrepreneurs and portray the human side of how cloud computing is making it cheaper and easier to start and scale a business.
“Today, the U.S. and global economy is going through a series of shifts and changes that are reshaping the economic landscape,” Emergent Research Partner Steve King said in a prepared statement. “In this new landscape, many people are using the power of the cloud to re-imagine the idea of small business and create new, innovative models that work for their needs.”
How badly do small businesses want to deploy cloud solutions?
While many small businesses want to integrate cloud platforms and services, there are various hurdles they must overcome to successfully deploy these solutions.
A May 2014 Microsoft (MSFT) survey of over 500 U.S. small businesses revealed the majority of small business owners are familiar with cloud solutions but do not use them at their companies.
Key survey findings included:
90 percent of respondents said they were familiar with the cloud.
66 percent of small business owners said they managed IT for their businesses.
60 percent of small businesses attributed increased revenue to technology.
60 percent said technology allows them to compete with similar size and/or larger companies.
The major technology concerns for small business owners included costs, security and the ability to access content from multiple devices in any location.
Microsoft Office General Manager Kirk Gregersen noted the survey highlights the demand for cloud solutions among small business owners. However, these business operators are still concerned about the cloud, and it could take them several years to fully adapt to it.
“Small businesses need cost-effective, secure and reliable solutions that enable them to be productive from anywhere — and they have very little time to implement and manage those solutions,” Gregersen wrote in a blog post.
Share your thoughts about this story in the Comments section below, via Twitter @dkobialka or email me at [email protected].
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