UK SMEs still struggling with basic IT issues

While SMEs may look to invest in enterprise class IT solutions, many are still struggling with basic IT issues according to new research carried out by IT solutions specialist Imerja.

The firm surveyed a range of UK SMEs to find out about their business continuity plans, and in the process discovered that 60% had suffered at least one email outage in the last three months.

Ian Jackson, managing director at Imerja said: “Investing in the right IT can add significant value to a business. But companies won’t be able to reap the rewards of technology fully if they are still having problems with essential business systems like email.”

The importance of email, and communications in general, for businesses cannot be overstated. Any outage can bring a company to a standstill and have tangible impacts in terms of revenue. With SMEs playing a key role in helping to drive the economic recovery, basic IT issues have the potential to cause significant effects on the big picture.

Ian continued: “Outsourcing business critical IT, whether it be email, infrastructure hosting or videoconferencing as a service, takes away risk and reduces the overhead ofrunning an in house system, often with added security benefits too.

“Managed services for IT can really boost productivity, because any issues that arise are identified quickly and dealt with immediately before they have chance to escalate and cause problems. With the growth in affordable outsourcing solutions SMEs can just as easilybenefit from this approach as larger enterprises.”