SMEs must adapt to digital competition
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According to a new survey, 38% of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) believe in 5 years time they’ll go out of business, providing their business model doesn’t change. This may be in relation to uncertainty stemming from the EU referendum, among other factors.
Investing in new tech
The findings also reveal 64% of SMEs are encountering competition from digital businesses. However, only 6% of SMEs are investing in new technologies and rising to the challenge, demonstrating the ever increasing need for further innovation.
According to the General Manager of Exact Cloud Solutions UK, Gavin Fell, it’s “great to see that there’s such a positive outlook among SMEs, but it’s clear that in order to deliver on those ambitions businesses need to adapt to the times. Digitalisation is going to be key to ensuring you are not only efficient, but remain competitive in today’s highly challenging environment.”
However, CEO of Exact, Erik Van der Meijden has said, “The use of technology to deepen business insight means that the wider SME economy is entering a new period of rapid growth and efficiency. As customer demands become ever more stringent, we are seeing entrepreneurial businesses taking advantage of digitalisation to broaden their service offerings. Exact provides ambitious SMEs with the technology and services they need to grow beyond their limits. As a result, companies are becoming increasingly agile, adapting to customer demands and market fluctuations in real time.”
In a bid to stage a fight back, cloud technologies are seeing more use in the UK. 58% of SMEs are now using cloud technology compared to 47% at the same time last year. That’s an increase of 7%.