A small study: IT in SMB - USA vs Russia


At the end of 2016, SalesForce conducted a study among 300 small and medium business owners in the United States. The survey concerned the use of IT technology in their companies. Impressed by a few figures, I decided to ask similar questions to friends from the top management of the Russian SMB and compare the results. There were not many answers, but from completely different regions of the country.

I got confused because the attention was attracted by the very first question from SalesForce: “Do you have at least one IT specialist on staff?”


Do you have at least one IT specialist on staff? (USA)

83% of Americans said no. We have the opposite: 83% of managers of SME enterprises in Russia have at least one IT specialist in their staff.


Do you have at least one IT specialist on staff? (Russia)

72% of American entrepreneurs choose IT solutions for their enterprise on their own, and 28% give the issue to the co-owner or partner. Only in 4% of cases the decision is made by specialized specialists.


Who in your organization decides on the purchase of an IT solution? (USA)

In Russia, the situation is more correct: general and technical are decided approximately equally. The category “Someone else” can be safely attributed to system administrators, programmers and other technical staff younger (they hardly ask sellers and marketers), therefore, in general, profile people are engaged in profile issues in Russia. But without accountants, of course, nowhere:


Who in your organization decides on the purchase of an IT solution? (Russia)

Then they asked the Anglo-Saxons: “Which factor affects the choice of the solution the most?” It turned out that the Price decides, in the second place Ease of use, and in the third - Compatibility with the current IT infrastructure.


Which factor most influences the choice of a solution / equipment for your organization? (USA)

Confidence in the manufacturer prevails at home, in second place is compatibility and usability. The price was only in third place. She shares it with Time for implementation. Of course - money is not the main thing for us! First of all, the atmosphere between people and the pleasure of the process.


Which factor most influences the choice of a solution / equipment for your organization? (Russia)

It would be logical to ask, what percentage of your annual budget goes to IT? And so they did. It turned out that in the North American United States there are even those who spend nothing at all (I wonder what kind of business they have?). And the majority of respondents allocate up to 24% of the annual budget for IT.


How much %% of the annual budget do companies spend on IT? (USA)

In the Russian Federation, the results are quite comparable, but there are much more "spending nothing":


How much %% of the annual budget do companies spend on IT? (Russia)

Where does this money go? Most of all in America they spend on iron, then there is financial software and close the top three - applications such as office.


How is your IT spending distributed on an annualized basis? (USA)

When interviewing Russian people, I decided to change the answer options a bit and included the item “Salary for IT personnel”. As they say - it's good to be an IT specialist, and to be a good IT specialist is even better! Otherwise, the results are comparable with our “Western partners” and are quite expected: we spend the most on hardware, in second place - software.


How is your IT spending distributed on an annualized basis? (Russia)

Further in the study there is a detailed analysis of the software used. We are talking about customer relationships and the place of technology in these relationships. If it is interesting to meet in person - please, that's it. However, for me, as a representative of a hardware manufacturer, I can stop here.

Lyrical digression

I spent a significant part of my work in small IT companies: a developer of system software, games, a small system integrator ... I remember that there was at least 1 system administrator everywhere. Often, when the admin went on vacation or quit, troubles began: either the mail will fall, the site will fall, or Wi-Fi will fall off. The people really suffered, because for all the technologies made up the lion's share of the necessary infrastructure for the successful performance of official duties. You can certainly say: “it means that the specialists were weak, since they could not set everything up properly,” however, no one is safe from breaking any piece of iron at any time. And this happened. I remember once it was just necessary to reboot the server, while in the absence of the admin they thought of it - half a day has passed.

Freelance was already and it was possible to invite a person from the outside. Sometimes they did so - they called the acquaintance of acquaintances, who came and repaired “for a bottle”. Then they began to have in stock a couple of three real freelancers, ready to come to the rescue and already know our "kitchen". However, this was often associated with some kind of nervousness and the loss of valuable time.


In this regard, let me give you another question from an American study:

How much do you trust cloud solutions? (USA)


And here it is:

How much do you trust cloud solutions? (Russia)


And further:

What% of your IT is in the cloud? (USA)


What% of your IT is in the cloud? (Russia)


I must apologize to the reader for the annoying mistake made when compiling the survey on Russia. Accidentally combined points of 0% and 1-24%. It turned out that the picture in the fatherland is not clear! It is not clear how the votes would be divided between these two points. I noticed a mistake only summing up the results. Terribly insulting! We can only say with confidence that in America, cloud technologies penetrate a little deeper: unlike Russia, there are those with clouds that accumulate from 25% to 100% of IT infrastructure.

But here's what caught my eye: despite the fact that there and there 2/3 of the respondents trust the clouds, only a few use them at full capacity.

Studying all this that's what came to mind:

  1. Most SMB companies in the United States do not hold their own IT specialists, probably because it is expensive;
  2. Many are now well versed or think that they are well versed in technology and are able to independently establish here or another IT system;
  3. However, there are a number of systems that only trained professionals can design, build and configure. (for example, to raise a network in an office, establish several Wi-Fi zones, build a VPN, etc.);
  4. It is strange, but quite sensible, that when choosing a solution, in the first place is not the price, but the trust in the manufacturer. It seemed to me that everything in the country had already passed into the mercantile plane. But no: do not have a hundred rubles, but have a hundred friends;
  5. Obviously, the price is not only the cost of iron and licenses;
  6. An important factor today is also the cost of installation, configuration and maintenance. And this is almost 100% the cost of relevant highly qualified personnel;
  7. Self-configuring systems through the cloud, such as SD-WAN, will reduce staff costs;
  8. Today at every corner they shout: clouds !, SDN !!, SD-WAN !!! .. However, only a few use them.


Your opinion? I will be glad to read the opinion of colleagues working abroad.

All with the upcoming, good luck in work, warmth, comfort and love at home!

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