Research
Snapshot: Trends in Small and Midsize Technology Businesses
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant issues across the supply chain sent the global economy on quite the ride over the past year. But the technology industry was able to forge ahead, as evidenced by the fifth edition of our “Small and Medium Business Trends Report”. While 100% of tech sector SMBs reported they faced challenges over the past year, they also reported revenue growth at a much higher clip (62%) than the survey average (43%). Our data shows how the tech industry is ahead of its peers in other sectors when it comes to the trends that shaped the last year, from adopting remote work to investing in — you guessed it — business technology.
Technology SMBs faced many of the same challenges as their peers in other industries last year. Unsurprisingly, though, SMBs in tech were able to lean into remote work quite successfully when health restrictions made in-person operations difficult. Going forward, almost nine in 10 (89%) of tech SMB owners feel optimistic about the changes they made during 2021 having positive long-term effects on their business.
We took a deeper look into the data from our fifth edition “Small and Medium Business Trends Report” to learn how technology businesses are forging ahead in still-uncertain times.
Technology SMBs faced many of the same challenges as their peers in other industries last year. Unsurprisingly, though, SMBs in tech were able to lean into remote work quite successfully when health restrictions made in-person operations difficult. Going forward, almost nine in 10 (89%) of tech SMB owners feel optimistic about the changes they made during 2021 having positive long-term effects on their business.
We took a deeper look into the data from our fifth edition “Small and Medium Business Trends Report” to learn how technology businesses are forging ahead in still-uncertain times.
Trend #1: Technology businesses lead the way when it comes to flexible working conditions.
The past year has seen a continuation of people working remotely and embracing flexible working hours. Technology SMBs have led the way, offering flexible working arrangements at a notably higher rate (53%) than average (43%). They’re also ahead of the curve when it comes to long-term plans to have employees go fully remote , with 20% of companies offering such flexibility, compared to 12.27% of all other industries. And they’re also ahead when it comes to splitting time between in-office and remote days, at 38% doing so versus 29.7% of all other industries. Interestingly, employee expectations among these small businesses are above average, not only when it comes to the freedom to work remotely (60%), but also for in-office safety precautions like regular temperature checks (29%) and widespread employee vaccination against COVID-19 (47%).
Fifty-three percent of small and midsize businesses in tech have offered flexible working arrangements.
Sixty percent of small and midsize businesses in tech say their employees expect to be able to work remotely.
Trend #2: Technology SMBs are preparing for the future, and they feel good about what they’re doing.
The uncertainty of the past two years has made small businesses across all industries think about their futures. Technology SMBs report feeling more confident (89%) than average (74%) that the shifts they’ve made to business operations over the past year will benefit their business in the long-term. Notably, almost four in 10 (38%) of tech businesses strongly agree on that point. What specific changes have they made? Expanding the ways customers can reach them (52%), planning to offer contactless services permanently (91%), and adopting customer service (26%) and ecommerce (27%) software in the past six months top the list. Tech SMBs are also more likely (85%) than average (69%) to have created scenario plans for future crises.
Eighty-nine percent of small and midsize businesses in tech say shifts they’ve made to business operations will benefit their business long-term.
Eighty-six percent of small and midsize businesses in tech have created scenario plans to prepare for future crises.
Trend #3: Tech SMBs are leaning further into tech.
No surprise here, but the data confirms it: Technology industry SMBs are leveraging business technologies more than their peers in other sectors. While that holds true for all technologies in the survey, the deltas are especially big for technology that increases business agility (71%) and increases data security (70%). They’re also more focused than most on offering contactless services (51%), but less focused than average on maintaining physical distancing in person (31%). Taken together, those last two data points indicate the industry as a whole may be leaning even further into doing business in virtual, not physical, space. And, SMBs in the tech sector are far more likely to use a customer relationship management (CRM) system (81%) than the survey average (54.6%).
Why did SMBs invest more in tech this past year?
Eighty-one percent of small and midsize businesses in tech have a CRM.
Dive deeper into trends across SMBs from more industries by downloading the "Small and Medium Business Trends Report".
More Resources
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Fifth Edition: Small & Medium Business Trends Report
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