An increasing rate of small to medium enterprises in Australia are becoming frustrated with dis satisfactory internet speeds that are relatively high in cost, which inhibits the realisation of Cloud IT services in Australia.
The latest survey of more than a thousand small to medium business owners also presents a considerable generation gap between baby boomers and generation Y business owners in using IT services communication tools in Australia like video conferencing, instant messaging, online banking, and the likes.
The study establishes that while usage of cloud computing IT services in Australia increased by nearly ten percent in the last several months, nearly 25 percent of the interviewed businesses are displeased with internet connection speeds and nearly 25 percent are complaining about the connection rates.
Simon Raik-Allen of MYOB stated that the study clearly reflects that SMEs are using broadband internet connection for business and cloud IT services users in Australia are seeing increased revenue compared to businesses that do not use the cloud. Nearly 30 percent of SMEs that use cloud IT services in Australia benefitted from a rise in earnings while non-cloud users only at 20 percent. He says that it is quite apparent that the more businesses adopt the use of cloud IT services in Australia, the better it will be for the country’s economy.
Simon articulated that the improvements to the country’s online infrastructure through the new broadband network roll out will help realise significant benefits to Australian SMEs and the economy. He expressed that the study shows that SMEs that employ cloud computing IT services in Australia are reporting stronger and steady revenue growth compared to their competitors who are yet to adapt to the use of cloud IT services in Australia. He also said that the survey serves as an encouraging message for SMEs in Australia to get on board the band wagon, or in this case, the cloud.
Last March, Technology Spectator reported that the country’s internet speed comes at a low rank of 42nd globally. Recent reports reflected that the average connection speed in Australia in the final quarter of 2014 is at 7.4 MBPS. The MYOB study registered a hike in the percentage of small businesses employing IT services in Australia to work on their online visibility and create social media or business websites, went up to 55 percent from nearly 45 percent in late 2014. The more popular social media channels for Australian SMEs at the time was LinkedIn at 17 percent and facebook at 18 percent while the most frequent users were in the hospitality and retail business (LinkedIn at 22 percent and facebook at 38 percent).
Nearly 20 percent of SMEs also hired IT and SEO Services in Australia to create blogs to communicate with their consumers. Interestingly, a comparison of the mentioned figures with the August 2014 reports show a 5 point reduction in the volume of Australian small businesses using social media. These figures supports Saleforce’s reports late last year which inferred that SMEs efforts invested on social media visibility have not been very fruitful. The firm that offers cloud software also mentioned that many SMEs have been focusing efforts in publicizing their company news which has not been productive in building communities online.
Business owners should also look into tasking their IT services in Australia to employ or improve online payment transactions. Just a third of the surveyed businesses accept customer payments via the web. Businesses in the line of transport (35 percent), agribusiness (47 percent), hospitality and retail (34 percent) had the biggest percentage of SMEs that accept IT services enabled online payments in Australia.
Mr. Raik-Allen of MYOB declared that there were considerable benefits to online payments (including mobile payments) which is why we are currently seeing huge growth in this area that almost 50 percent of SMEs are now accepting different forms of online payment options. He says that we, including all Australian IT services providers, should do all we can to encourage and help more business owners to take up online payments as this will increase their revenue and improve the national economy.
Lastly, the study showed a significant decrease in email communications, especially with younger business owners, who now make more use of instant messaging applications like Slack and Hipchat. All in all, online banking (56 percent) and email use (62 percent) were the most prominent online activities among the interviewed SMEs. Reports show a trend of younger SME owners (around 18-30 years old) using other avenues of Australia IT services support enabled online communication such as video conferencing (13 percent) and instant messaging (11 percent).
