Nearly two-thirds of SME respondents see ICT agility as a sound business practice, but about half feel their organization's approach is sub-optimal, held back by legacy technologies and budget constraints. Affordable technology is seen as the biggest enabler of increased agility, especially among smaller companies. Most agree that SMEs face a choice between costly enterprise solutions or affordable but limited consumer-grade options with little in between.

1. ESCAPING THE MIDDLE GROUND
AGILITY AND THE SME
JIM BURNS – TALKTALK BUSINESS
IAN WATT - OVUM

2. Agenda Today
The Research findings
The importance of Agility in today’s
environment
Agility Tips

3. Agility
Responsive to change; primed for
opportunity; and resolute against risk.

4. Research sample – smaller companies
 The smaller company sample comprised 310 companies with 10-200 employees, half of which had
50+ employees
 Respondents were IT and other senior decision-makers with ICT purchase influence
 Almost half of respondents were in ICT roles

5. Almost two-thirds of SME respondents regard ICT agility as common
sense/sound management practice
What does ICT agility
mean to you?
 62% of smaller company respondents believed ICT agility to represent sound business management
 13% regarded ICT agility as a key source of competitive advantage
 12% regarded ICT agility as representing investment underpinning the long-term validity of the
business

6. Half of respondents feel their organisation’s approach to agility is sub-
optimal
How would you describe
your organisation's
approach to agility?
 Roughly half of respondents felt their organisation struck the right balance on agility
 But about a third felt their organisation was held back by the ICT technology currently used
 A further 14% felt their organisation overlooked agility completely
 6% felt their company’s ICT solution was over-engineered for agility, with a range of options rarely or
never used

7. Legacy systems coupled with budget constraints are seen as the main
obstacles to agility
What restricts you most in
moving towards
becoming more agile from
a technology
perspective?
 Almost half of respondents regarded the main barriers to agility as legacy technology resulting from
cost constraints
 This view was particularly strong among smaller companies
 Poor IT literacy and lack of affordable choices were also seen as significant barriers particularly
among smaller companies

8. Affordable technology is seen as the main game changer for agility,
particularly among smaller companies
The biggest game
changer to your
organisation's ICT agility
agenda would be...
 Among smaller companies, about half of respondents regarded affordability as most important in
increasing ICT agility
 Among medium-sized companies, affordability was seen as most important by over a third of
respondents
 This supports the hypothesis that SMEs are only as agile as their technology choices allow them to
be

9. A majority of respondents agree that SMEs have to choose between
paying too much and receiving too little
'Small and medium-sized businesses are limited to
two choices:
Use costly and complex enterprise-grade solutions
or affordable but feature-light consumer-grade
technology. There is very little in-between.’
 Almost two-thirds of respondents agreed that SMEs are limited to two choices: using costly and
complex enterprise-grade solutions or affordable but feature-light consumer-grade technology.

10. Agility Report Summary
A rock and a hard place
Beta state of mind
Less is more

11. Being Agile allows
you to cope with
change !

12. 84.4%
GROWTH IN MOBILE
TRAFFIC
YEAR ON YEAR
1/3 OF TRAFFIC
Now VIDEO
44x
GROWTH IN NETWORK
TRAFFIC IN NEXT 10 YEARS

13. Bandwidth Growth Sept 2012 – Sep 2013
Average traffic Sept 2012 385Gb Sep 2013 850Gb – 120% increase
Peak Traffic Sept 2012 415Gb Sep 2013 950Gb – 130% increase
Total network traffic on TalkTalk Next Generation Network
400
200
800
600

14. Performance
82% have experienced network
outages that have had an impact on
business
Business Continuity
64% have experienced
some form of disruption/compromise
due to bandwidth restrictions
Security & Mobility
53% say their networks either don’t
permit or don’t support BYOD
Monitoring & Maintenance
64% feel they can easily make
changes to their network where
needed
Check out http://www.talktalkbusiness.co.uk/solutions/network/

15. 5 Technology Agility Tips

16. Tip 5 : Be clear on what you want to do
BYOD
Collaboration
Flexible Working
Wi-Fi
On-Line
Mobile

17. Tip 4 : Speed Up Your Internet

18. Tip 3 : Review how the cloud can help

19. Tip 2 : Seriously consider VOIP

20. Tip 1 : Choose the right supplier

21. And of course, a bit about
TalkTalk Business

22. POWERING
AGILITY
DIRECT INTERNET ACCESS
FOR BUSINESSES THAT RELY
ON THE INTERNET
LARGEST UK
NEXT GENERATION NETWORK
GREAT COVERAGE
FAST UK SUPPORT

23. THANK YOU
ANY QUESTIONS?