Small Business Technology Myths
Selling Information technology solutions to small business is actually big business. How well do technology solution providers serve the small business? Just how different is a Small business to a enterprise business
Small Business Technology Myths
Selling Information technology solutions to small business is actually big business. All technology providers have a product line selling to organisations which fall into the small business category.
There are no exact definitions of what measurements make a business small, as it varies depending on which country you are in.
Some measure revenue, others measure the number of employees or a mixture of both.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_business
According to the Federation of Small Business (FSB), small business accounts for 99.3% of private sector business in the UK.
The other end of the market is the Enterprise market with large organisations with international offices and thousands of employees.
Technology providers also have product lines especially for this target market.
How do Small Business and Enterprise products differ?
The first most obvious difference is price.
You can expect to pay a lot more for Enterprise products. Small Business products are generally cheaper because they have a number of key features removed, or the number of users is restricted.
The myth here is that features deemed as Enterprise are not required in a small business and they are removed.
This creates an entry level product for the small business and gives them enterprise products which they can aspire and grow into.
I use the word myth, because the assumption is wrong.
Modern small business requires the same technology features as enterprise, just on a smaller scale.
Small Business Networking products are a good example of this.
They often can not be configured, if they do have a management interface it is via a very basic web interface.
Important security features are removed, traffic management features for high bandwidth traffic are removed, and the ability to divide up the network into sections and separate types of traffic is removed.
The ability to power devices via a network patch cable is restricted or removed entirely.
These features are deemed as Enterprise features. This is a mistake.
You can walk into a small business of 20 people and you will observe them using Terabytes of Network Attached Storage (NAS), they will be using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone systems, They will have a CCTV system connected to the network, They provide site visitors with Guest WIFI. The list goes on.
All the features that were removed for Small Business now make it hard for a business to function. Often a business owner will have to prematurely remove equipment because of restricted features.
Whatever money that was saved by buying these Small Business switches is now lost.
Small Business is business none the less than larger business.
This is why network design is so important. We can help you select the correct features and equipment right for your business.