Australia's small and medium businesses are yet to see silver lining in the Cloud.

Marina Freri
Tuesday, 25 October 2011 11:53

Reports on how Australian businesses are working towards being 'digital ready' can often be contradictory, but there is one trend that comes across most studies, and that is Australian consumers are well ahead of businesses in the mobility revolution.

At an event held today in Sydney, Optus presented the results of a survey conducted on 850 Australian small and medium businesses (SMBs) with a maximum of 50 employers.

The survey covered several areas of business digitalisation, from cloud awareness to security and back up. Data shows Australian SMBs are reluctant to see advantages in migrating to the cloud, with many still wondering what the cloud actually is.

Optus managing director for Small and Medium Business, Rohan Ganeson, said 59 percent of surveyed business owners declared themselves to be unaware or unsure of cloud solutions and what they offered, and that only 4 percent of them claimed to be using the cloud.

'When you consider that 93 percent of online Australians access the Internet daily and 71 percent use their smartphones to access the web, our research indicates that SMB are missing out on potential opportunities if they don't keep pace with how consumers want to engage with them,' he said.

According to the survey, there is also a third of SMBs that are aware of the availability of cloud solutions but are not using these; 25 percent of them admitted they required more information. Ganeson said that Optus had found a lack of knowledge on how to integrate portable devices, cloud services and applications in the day-to-day business practice.

He said business owners were generally too busy to find time to learn how to deploy new technologies, but needed to catch up with consumers' behaviour. 'Consumers live in a digital world and the Internet is going mobile and we believe these expectations will increasingly require SMBs to operate in the digital space - if they don't they risk falling behind,' Ganeson said.

The survey also looked at how business owners valued online and mobility solutions. It found 26 percent of respondents struggling at seeing any benefit from having an online presence and 48 percent of SMB owners declaring not to have a website.

CONTINUED