Does the Computer Industry Really Serve Small Businesses?

Any vendor that sells computer equipment – even software – to small businesses, or wants to increase sales to this group, must read Walt Mossberg’s column today in the Wall Street Journal.  Entitled “Computer Makers Cater to Big Business, Slight the Rest of Us,” it is available as a free access article.

He points out how most of the computer industry is missing out on serving – truly serving – small businesses.  Instead of dividing the computing world up into businesses by size or by purchasing volumes, he says segment it according to whether the buyers have an IT department or not.  Mossberg writes:

“In fact, the industry operates on a false model of the U.S. computer-using population. It imagines the world is divided between “consumers,” who lie around at home playing games and listening to music, with the occasional homework assignment or tax form thrown in; and “enterprises,” large corporations where computing is controlled by IT departments and only mission-critical tasks are performed.

If these models acknowledge small businesses at all, they get lumped into a category called SMB, for small and medium businesses, where the minimum size is something like 500 employees and an IT staff rules.

In fact, the most accurate way to divide the computer-using world is into two segments: the one controlled by an IT department and the one controlled by the people who actually use the computers, be they consumers or small-business folks. A vast amount of business crucial to the U.S. economy is conducted every day in the non-IT part of the computing world.”

I would add this point: if more computer vendors took Mossberg’s observations to heart, they would have an easier time getting at those 23+ Million small businesses in the United States, the vast majority of which have 10 or fewer employees and no IT department whatsover. 

Perhaps then computer products would be tailored for non-IT department use;  sales and marketing language would lose the techno-lingo and become understandable;  and it would be easier for small-volume purchasers to make new, add-on and upgrade purchases through self-serve channels.

Mind you, I am not bashing the computer industry.  And I do not 100% agree with everything Mossberg says, as I think there are offerings that are reasonably well suited to businesses with under 500 employees, besides Apple, the one he points out with approval.  For instance, I would give more credit to Dell and HP than he does in his article.  I think he forgets the degree to which Dell revolutionized buying computers for very small businesses and what it was like before Dell, and more recently HP.  And those are but two examples.

On the other hand, Mossberg makes some excellent and constructive points.  The spirit of his message is certainly important.  Listening just might help computer and software vendors capture more of that elusive small business market. 

Tags: Business; small business