March 24, 2011 – Small and midsize businesses (SMB) consistently struggle with committing to the investment that collaboration projects require. According to InformationWeek research, only one third are increasing their IT spending on collaborative projects, compared to the previous year. Even more alarming is that 15% are cutting that same spending.

InformationWeek brought this topic to our attention in their article, “The Collaboration Imperative For SMBs.” 

There are many emerging collaboration systems that can help SMBs, but just because the infrastructure needs are similar or at least similar products can be applied, what will work for successful collaboration and information-sharing strategy for large organizations and SMBs are often vastly different.

  • Should improving collaboration be among the priorities SMBs attack with those IT dollars?
  • Can you really make Facebook-for-business the centerpiece of your company’s collaboration strategy?
  • Are you constantly engaging in long e-mail threads with multiple people?
  • Do you find yourself going back through your e-mail to search for a project-related updates?
  • Are you multitasking medium- to long-term projects, each with a laundry list of deliverables?
  • Do you need a more effective way to share content with suppliers, customers, or other third parties?

These are just a few questions that SMBs are asking themselves.

Melody K. Smith