"We're an IT company, and even we don't have our own server." This is a situation many small and medium enterprises find themselves in, representing an opportunity ripe for the picking.
Sfiso Sibanyoni is MD of Moepathutse ICT Solutions, a 20-person IT services and solutions outfit that is well positioned at the SME coalface.
"We're an SME, we interact a lot with SMEs and the decision-makers at SMEs, so we're able to gather insight into what they actually require," he says. "And a lot of the time when we develop solutions, we're actually solving our own pains, and realise that there must surely be other people in our situation that have the same kind of pains."
Moepathutse is in a unique position in that it has the skills and capabilities to execute on these opportunities. Having started out as a traditional Microsoft-certified enterprise infrastructure and systems provider, often under contract to multinational partners, the company has made the shift to cloud computing solutions.
"We have a keen focus to build tools that bring intelligence to SMEs to help them make smart decisions," says Sibanyoni. "We want to build solutions that are able to present that data in a way that's easy to consume and easy for you to make decisions on."
Affordability
The SME IT space is certainly red-hot, driven equally by the need to contain costs and the ability to do so, thanks to falling connectivity rates and flexible, cloud-based services. Paying as little as R79 per month for access to Microsoft's Office 365 suite is palatable even to the smallest business.
"There's no question about it. The economy is tight, software is expensive and the model to use what you need, when you need it just works for people," says Andre Joubert, GM at MWEB Business. "We now have non-conventional services coming into the cloud, and that's going to change the game even further."
He cites MWeb's partnership with SAP that provides access to the SAP BusinessOne ERP system on a subscription model. This move, he believes, is going to place pressure on traditional suppliers to this sector to adapt their model, or be left behind.
The telcos, as the providers of connectivity and therefore motivated by the opportunity to drive data traffic, have also recognised the tremendous SME potential unlocked by cloud services. The likes of MTN, Vodacom and Telkom all have dedicated services and packages offering the convenience of a full suite of services from a single source.
One-stop shop
Ryan Gould, GM for brand and communications at MTN, says the vision is for SMEs to set up all their IT needs, from Web hosting, e-mail, and hosted PABX, in a single call.
"We've produced an informed quantification of the market that has allowed us to focus on certain market verticals. We've done some interesting work in terms of the challenges and issues they're looking to have supported."
Some of MTN's solutions in this regard include a business call centre - a business concierge service, Gould calls it ? that provides a range of information and advisory services, such as forex rates.
Internet Solutions has recently positioned itself in this space, with the introduction of its IS Ignite brand that offers a comprehensive suite of services, with the big selling point being absolute control over the level and duration of services.
The service is admittedly aimed more at 'mature' SMEs that require a higher level of business tools and services, but that want to avoid a full-blown IT department.
"Our whole motto is to bring corporate-grade services to the SME and to give the benefit to those that want those higher-grade services at an SME affordability rate," explains Herman Jansen van Rensburg, GM at IS Ignite.
"Ultimately, we want a scenario where an SME can buy anything from apps to hardware to ISP services."
Education
Wanda Matandela, managing executive for Small Medium Enterprises at Vodacom, admits that more education is needed to convert SMEs to the cloud opportunities.
"SMEs have always had demand for IT services, and it's not to say they don't want to [adopt cloud services], but maybe they don't understand the value it can bring to their business," he says.
The economy is tight, software is expensive and the model to use what you need, when you need it just works for people.
Andre Joubert, GM, MWEB Business
Probably the biggest player in the market, with 350 000 SMEs as customers, is Telkom, which has a dedicated small business unit.
Theo Bensch, managing executive of Telkom Business, says they've witnessed all manner of approach to the adoption of cloud services, from the dipping of toes into the waters to half-submersion, to those that have run and jumped straight in.
"We've seen an exponential uptake around value-added services, especially in services like hosted exchange," he says. "The legislative landscape is also putting pressure on SMEs in terms of labour relations, so they tend to make more use of contract workers and can now take up services on a month-to-month basis with ease."
First published in the September 2013 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine
Share