Small and medium-sized businesses that get on the digital transformation bandwagon can stay competitive, enhance customer experiences and improve revenue. Here’s how.
Embarking on digital transformation in the new year may seem daunting to small and medium-sized businesses, as they often face budget and resource constraints.
In Southeast Asia, SMBs in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam are still at an early phase, or Digital Indifferent stage, of digital maturity, according to the Cisco APAC SMB Digital Maturity Index. At this stage, the business has a reactive approach to market changes, does not use digital technologies or cloud resources, and has no automated processes in place.
In Singapore, businesses are further along in the digital journey, at the Digital Observer stage. That means while digital efforts have begun, they are uncoordinated, bite-sized and tactical, and heavily focused on automating processes to achieve efficiencies.
“To get ahead, SMBs need to be savvy when adopting digital technologies,” says Raz Mohamad, Cisco’s Director of Commercial and Small Business for ASEAN. “Start with a well-defined digital transformation strategy and roadmap, and then invest strategically.”
The good news is that SMBs have access to a wide range of solutions to embark on digital transformation. To make a positive impact on their business growth for the year ahead, SMBs should take note of the following four trends:
1. Collaboration is essential
Collaboration technology has powerful capabilities to help businesses grow to new levels. Such tools allow the SMB workforce to be made up of geographically dispersed experts and talent, enabling flexible work hours and remote working. The use of a high-quality, reliable video conferencing technology enables SMBs to build strong partnerships with suppliers, partners and customers while saving on travel time and costs.
The latest cloud-based business collaboration solutions such as Cisco Webex Teams bring together messaging, file sharing, video meetings, white boarding, calling and other tools. This enables SMBs to collaborate effectively on a simple, cost-effective subscription basis.
Try out Cisco Webex at no charge, or consider Cisco Huddle Space Solutions to access tools that are specifically designed to help users share, communicate and cocreate with their small teams.
2. Cyberattacks continue to increase
SMBs have become a prime target for cyberattackers: Two-thirds of the world’s SMBs are now experiencing cyberattacks, according to a Ponemon study, with 45% of respondents finding that their cybersecurity posture is “ineffective” and 39% reporting that they lack an incident response plan.1
Given today’s threat landscape, it is vital to rapidly identify and mitigate potential threats over the network. Consider protecting your IT infrastructure with security products tailored for SMBs that control network access with ease, increase visibility, and reduce the time to detect and stop attacks.
Try the free 14-day Cisco Umbrella trial, a cloud-delivered enterprise network security solution that provides users with a first line of defense against cybersecurity threats by blocking malware and protecting against malicious websites, command-and-control callbacks and phishing. It also offers predictive intelligence, by automating threat protection and uncovering attacks before they launch.
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Download Now3. SMBs evolve into modern and connected businesses
The new digital reality―including the growth of connected devices, the Internet of Things and cloud applications―requires SMBs to have connected networks. SMBs need a fast, reliable and flexible network that can cope with the diverse user and application demands of the business, as well as scale up as the business grows.
To keep business operations running smoothly, SMBs require wireless products, such as next-generation access points, and products that offer ease of management, such as Cisco switches that are simple to deploy manage. Try out Cisco Meraki solutions―which provide true zero-touch provisioning and are built to simplify the challenges of modern networks with a cloud-managed product family―with a one-year free trial, or view a free demo.
4. Businesses shift to multicloud
Modern web applications have to meet ever-higher user expectations, including 24/7 availability on virtually any device or screen size. To meet these business demands, a growing number of SMBs are taking the multicloud approach where they host applications on a combination of cloud and privately controlled on-premises data centers, or multiple cloud providers.
This approach also eases the deployment of web apps over the cloud, enables disaster recovery and offers the benefits of being able to shift workloads on demand. Learn how Cisco Small Business Data Center Solutions offer simple, affordable, highly secure and reliable data center options for organizations of any size.
“Digital transformation is really a journey―it is not a sprint but a marathon,” Raz Mohamad says. “SMBs should constantly assess their digital maturity and prioritize key initiatives to address any gaps.”
1 “2019 Global State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses,” Ponemon, 2019
