According to specialised SME-market researchers at AMI Partners Inc., rising costs and insufficient funds continue to be a major concern for SMEs  worldwide. In response, these companies have turned to IT (whether insourced or  outsourced) to reduce further their operational costs and at the same time enable themselves to roll out more or better versions of their products and services.

All this is, of course, nothing new. What can be new are the technologies they choose to deploy or the technology areas they choose to  explore.
   
At this Forum, we shall delve into them. Receiving special attention shall be the following.

Key areas of IT spend. Experts expect ASEAN’s SMEs are to spend as much as US$13.4 billion in IT this year. The emerging markets, such as Indonesia and Vietnam, should expect to see the majority of its investments made in basic IT infrastructure. Organisations in the more mature markets will see greater expenditure in three  big areas: IT services, the Internet and storage.

SaaS: The On-premise, On-demand Problem. Now that software as a service (SaaS) has been out on the market for a few years and  been deployed by more than a few daring or simply astute SMEs, we ask if the old rules of thumb for deciding whether to go on-demand or on-premise for our enterprise still apply or need to be updated.

Hardware: Leasing & Utility Computing. We look at the changing face of IT hardware provision, as it is impacted by rising computing  demands, shrinking IT budgets, and consolidated vendor markets, and tell you the key financial help offerings available for the SME today.

IT Outsourcing. The standard approach to choosing outsourcing options is to farm out operational IT (that which is used to handle largely volume-based processes) and keep inhouse the  strategic IT (that which is meant to drive new business direction and create new revenue streams and such). This approach has been pretty much used by SMEs through the years. But has this changed, given current budgetary limitations?

Manpower: Recruitment, Retention, Promotion More often than not, an enterprise’s ability to bring in good people and keep them happy is  very much dependent on its size ultimately. The larger it is, the more it is likely to offer its IT people by way of personal development as well as other various growth opportunities. We look closely at what SMEs offer in this area better than large enterprises.

Infosecurity: Protect the Unknown. For a long time now, SMEs typically have relied on what is often referred to as “security by obscurity”. Have the threats changed in such a way that collectively they are forcing SMEs to change their approach to information security? A 360-degree view of information security as it is practiced by SMEs is given here.