Weekly SMB Market Roundup

The high tech industry is aggressively courting small and midsize businesses. Here is a roundup of product and service introductions during the week ended October 24, 2003:



Microsoft formally introduces its 2003 Office System lineup. "Microsoft is making a massive push into the small business market with Office 2003 as well as its recently released Small Business Server 2003... ." More.



IBM launches content management software for midsize businesses. "DB2Content Manager Express... enables smaller businesses to capture, manage and store corporate documents, as well as media and graphic files." More.



Verizon enters the SMB Internet security market, offering round-the-clock Internet security services. More.



Intel introduces a new marketing and training initiative for its distributors and dealers. It is designed to help the channel convince small businesses of the need to upgrade PCs and adopt wireless solutions. More.



Toshiba launches 3 notebook computers to attract small businesses. Toshiba is following a trend by small businesses toward notebook PCs. More.



ACCPAC International, Inc., a subsidiary of Computer Associates International, Inc. launched a business intelligence tool for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) seeking a cost-effective system for improving their sales planning, analysis, and strategy development. More.



Guarded Networks, a managed security services provider, has chosen to support Fortinet's antivirus firewall products in its BorderShield managed security service platform to capitalize on the growing demand by small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) for outsourced security services. More.



Wireless Security Corp. announced a new security outsourcing service for wireless LANs to help IT staff at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) spend less time deploying and managing wireless systems. More.



Solinus, Inc., a leading provider of e-mail messaging solutions, launched an online service, Inbox Genius, to remove SPAM and viruses' from e-mail before final delivery to workers' mailboxes. The service is targeted toward the SMB market. More.



Siebel, NetSuite and Microsoft announced programs to offer down-scaled CRM product to the European SMB market. There are 10 Million SMBs in Europe and this market is vastly underserved. (However, don't conclude that the U.S. SMB market is saturated with CRM products. According to a Gartner Group spokeswoman, in North America only 5% of small businesses have a CRM solution, and only 20% of medium size businesses have one.) More.



The above list is by no means exhaustive. But it does give a clue as to the importance of the SMB market to high tech, and signals a key trend.