Small firms miss wide area opportunity

NEWS UK firms are failing to make the most of wide area technology, according to the latest research by Yankee Group. Figures show only 12 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are using WANs to inter-connect offices. Over 40 per cent of small businesses and 84 per cent of medium-sized businesses prefer to keep networking local. Joseph Villarosa, director of SME business communications at Yankee Group, said he was "staggered" by the results. Pim Bildebeck, analyst at IDC, agreed: "The figure does surprise me. I'd expect more to have taken up the technology, but then they do want ready-made solutions." Bildebeck claimed businesses could be discouraged by the complexity of the IT involved. "SMEs are not technology focused," he said, "but it's good to make use of new technology especially when it fills a business need. There are lots of low cost, easy services available that don't require a lot of IT support which SMEs often don't have." Yankee Group claimed the study revealed an untapped market for vendors and resellers.