[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Results from a survey conducted by Dell Cloud Business Applications and Techaisle show adoption of cloud business applications is on the rise among small and medium businesses (SMBs). The SMB Cloud Application Trends Survey measured the benefits and challenges faced in migrating applications to the cloud and found IT decision makers have critical roles in the success of cloud application decisions and implementations, and in choosing the right IT vendor.

As SMBs assess which cloud applications make the most sense for their businesses, the survey reveals deployment services and application integration are critical for success. As such, the survey in December 2011 of more than 400 U.S.-based companies with employee bases ranging from 50 to 999 found that up to 69 percent of SMBs indicate preference to purchase cloud applications from a single trusted vendor.

Paulette Altmaier (Vice president and general manager, Cloud Business Applications, Dell): Customers are looking for a trusted IT partner who has evaluated the right cloud applications for their businesses and who can accelerate their time to value with turnkey services.

Key findings include:

• Cloud application adoption will continue to rise in 2012: SMBs that currently use cloud applications plan to add an average of three new cloud business applications in 2012.
• CRM is a gateway to broader adoption of cloud applications: CRM has the highest penetration of any cloud application at up to 55 percent, an increase of up to 34 percent from 2010.
• Managing multiple vendors is a pain point for SMBs: Up to fifty percent of respondents noted significant challenges in keeping track of different SLA’s, while up to 48 percent complained that explaining their business to each vendor was tedious and time consuming.
• SMBs desire flexibility in integration: SMBs have high integration process expectations with up to 74 percent of respondents using in-house IT staff to integrate new cloud applications with on-premise technology and up to 61percent are writing software code to integrate applications. Up to sixty-three percent of respondents would like the option to modify the integration based on business process changes.
• Efficiency and productivity continue to be top benefits of applications integration: On average, SMBs state they have experienced up to 38 percent improvement in operational efficiency due to reduced manual processes and up to 39 percent improvement in employee productivity due to automation of tasks and information.

Overall, SMBs state that the key benefits of adopting cloud applications include a low total cost of ownership (TCO), fast deployment time, simplified access from a browser, single sign-on, and automated feature and functionality upgrades. Dell Cloud Business Applications (DCBA) can fulfill many of the needs identified in the survey, delivering a family of trusted, integrated cloud applications and services that enable new business processes and deliver rapid time to value.

Survey Methodology:
The primary research study was conducted with 400 SMBs in the U.S. that have at least one cloud-based business application. The survey was conducted online in December 2011 and was based on a structured questionnaire with a number of open-ended questions. The sample included both IT Decision Makers (ITDM) and Business Decision Makers (BDMs) who have responsibility for selecting and implementing business applications.

(Research conducted by Techaisle on behalf of Dell based on a sample from Techaisle’s SMB cloud computing technology panel.)

[Image Courtesy: Dell]