How SMBs are doing more with less.
IT Press Tour #37 had the opportunity to meet with Fred Voccola, CEO, and Taunia Kipp, Chief Corporate Marketing Officer at Kaseya, the purpose-built IT and security management platform for managed service providers (MSPs) and small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Kaseya is helping SMBs as they struggle to keep up with the increasing velocity of technical change, regulatory requirements, and shifting user paradigms.
There's been a 68% increase in cyberattack activity during the pandemic as cybercriminals take advantage of new attack vectors with remote workers. While the overall economy has declined by 5%, IT spending is up 3% as companies adapt to a new way of doing business. MSPs are adding more to their portfolio as those using three or more solutions grew 22%.
Nearly three-quarters of SMBs expect things to be back to normal within the second quarter of 2021 as vaccines become available and economic restrictions loosen. 90% of SMB executives expect tech spending to level out but still increase in 2021 as businesses institutionalize the rapid changes and increase spending on compliance and security. 89% of SMBs expect increased regulatory scrutiny following the pandemic and plan to respond with increased spending to comply with the new regulations.
The lack of security and compliance has real consequences on SMBs. MSPs are adding compliance to their service offerings and they are seeing increased revenue as a result. Technicians value the stability of a job/employer more in uncertain times. The importance of flexibility and cooperation has increased as teams banded together to overcome challenges. As IT workloads increased to accommodate change, technicians rose to the challenge.
Like large enterprises, digital transformation is accelerating in SMBs. Telemedicine has exploded with eye exams, physicals, and orthopedics as doctors have been forced to diagnose and treat remotely. Fitness facilities have shifted to online live video classes to stay connected to customers and maintain operations. Dine-in restaurants have shifted to online orders, rapid/touchless pick-up. and delivery. Architects, exterior designers, and solar installers are using satellite imagery and VR to remotely generate designs.
84% of SMBs think the changes made in 2020 are here to stay and it is enabled by technology and MSPs. IT management has become more demanding with a 139% increase in IT service requests, a 358% increase in VPN and Zoom traffic, and a 29% decrease in SMB revenue -- all since March 15.
Modern IT platforms require providing all of the services a permanently digital-first small business requires. Increasing the total amount of work done in a given day with better efficiency. Reduced hard and soft costs through better software deals and greater technician efficiency.
The Kaseya platform provides customer satisfaction, technician efficiency, and savings. They are continuing to develop or acquire new technologies to address market needs. The platform is architected for efficiency with real workflow integration.
The Kaseya Integration Hub creates a stable integration point for all current and future products while providing instant connectivity to all points in the platform. The platform currently has more than 78 workflow integrations and adds 6 to 8 every quarter. With the integration platform, technicians regain an average of more than 25% of their work hours/day. Kaseya's solutions are, on average, 33% less costly than competing software offerings.
IT pros are the heroes of 2020 enabling SMBs to accelerate their digital transformation to function through a pandemic.