Long an underserved technology market in the past, SMBs (small and midsize businesses) are now seen as important revenue streams
for major IT vendors. With the SMB market worth some $300 billion and growing at a significantly faster pace than Fortune
1000s, there are significant revenues to be garnered. In response the big vendors, including IBM, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems,
are retooling enterprise hardware and software offerings to meet SMB needs — delivering low-cost platforms with
simple, automated features that bring ease of use and low maintenance requirements.
IBM Makes an Express Play
“For the last 10 years we have been internally componentizing our middleware,” says Chris Wicher, vice president of development
at IBM’s software group responsible for the design, direction, and implementation of the company’s Express products, an SMB
line unveiled this summer. “If you dissect the code in WebSphere, you can break apart the thing into component subparts.”
It is this dissection of enterprise-class technologies that has allowed IBM to create Express. The line includes includes
combinations of server and desktop hardware; an SMB version of Content Manager; and SMB versions of server apps including
WebSphere, DB2, Tivoli, and Notes; along with special financing options. Hardware in the line includes ThinkPad notebooks,
NetVista desktops, and eServer xSeries servers. The WebSphere Commerce Express bundle enables the easy creation and management
of e-commerce sites. IBM says a simple installation process permits users to build an online store in less than an hour.
The Express line is directly targeted at professionals likely to be found at SMBs, such as systems administrators, Wicher
says. “We don’t want midmarket users having to turn 250 knobs on a Web apps server, whereas an enterprise needs to do that
to more properly optimize for a much more complex environment.”
Microsoft Buys In
Not to be left behind, Microsoft has set its own SMB agenda. During the past two years, the company has purchased Great Plains
Software and Navision, both specialists in developing SMB software. Since the respective acquisitions, Microsoft has completed
the integration of both companies’ development teams into its core SMB development group.
“What we are trying to do is build an architecture that allows applications to be customized and to work together,” says Nigel
Burton, general manager of Microsoft’s small and mid market solutions and partners group. “The first product that was the
result of these integrated teams is Microsoft CRM, which has all the qualities we expect to deliver for all business solutions
in the SMB space.”
Some of those qualities include a simpler installation and configuration procedure than other Microsoft products geared toward
corporate users with much larger IT staffs. The company has taken pains to integrate the SMB product with desktop applications
such as Outlook, Word, and Excel so that data can be more easily shared.
Microsoft has also integrated the product with its complete stable of existing Business Solutions applications, all of which
are sold exclusively to SMBs, so that midmarket customers have a reduced need for IT intervention because they can more easily
perform data mapping for contacts, accounts, orders, and invoices. This way SMBs have a centralized view of all customer and
product information.
Microsoft’s SMB initiative may be held back by its inability to articulate .Net’s benefits to such users, says Mika Krammer,
research vice president at Gartner. “They created this mystique around [.Net] that people did not understand. Is it a product?
A service? A concept?”
HP and Sun Compete
Even Hewlett-Packard and Sun have recognized the importance of pushing an SMB strategy. This year, each announced an initiative
to package its latest low-cost hardware offerings with integration services and partner help.
HP is leveraging its hardware lineup, starting with ProLiant servers, to offer suites of services for SMBs. “We are strong
with ProLiant servers and with imaging and printing, and we use these products to leverage some of our other products and
solutions like PCs and handhelds,” says Chris Ogburn, HP’s SMB marketing director.
E-mail
Printer Friendly
Reprints
(InfoWorld) - In the litigious world we live in, deploying a unified communications platform in your enterprise could...
