SMB-It’s Finally the Real Deal!

by Diane Krakora

“SMB” has been the on the tips of channel chiefs’ tongues for years.  The partner community has heard all the partner program “hype”, and most of them live the dynamics of serving this market every day.  But vendors are paying more than lip service as they make major investments in corporate strategy, sales resources and marketing to enable the channel as the primary route-to-market for various sub-segments of the SMB market. 

With worldwide SMB IT spending in 2008 expected to grow 7% or more – faster than overall IT spending per IDC – and with over 50% of service providers’ revenue expected to come from SMB (< 1000 seats) per Ziff-Davis, the numbers back up the SMB story.  Consider the double digit growth of SMB focus in EMEA and emerging markets (e.g. BRIC which is expected to grow as much as $80 billion in SMB in the next 3 years) and the tide is even stronger.  India is predominantly SMB.  Even in the U.S., the spending in SMB is expected to eclipse (if not double) the spending in enterprise.   Talk about “green field” opportunities!