Hidden among the doom and gloom stories of economic woes there are signs of brightness on the horizon; and this brightness is being fuelled by Cloud solutions.

The SME Revival

After a rocky few years following the global financial crisis and then the Euro crisis, it appears that SMEs are well on the road to recovery. Industry analysts believe much of the optimism SMEs are feeling is driven by the benefits Cloud computing is delivering.

Recent research into the outlook for SMEs across Europe has revealed that:

  • Some 25% plan to recruit new staff this year (rising to 40% in some countries).
  • 18% will be investing in new technology.

Beat the economic blues with the Cloud

The Growth of Cloud Computing

Although Europe has been slower than the US to adopt cloud, and the UK the slowest country in Europe, things are changing. Gartner predicted 19% growth in the global Cloud market in 2012 compared to just a 3% rise in IT spending.

Predictions for top Cloud growth areas:

  • Infrastructure as a Service (41%).
  • Management and Security (27%).
  • Platform as a Service (26.6%).
  • Software as a Service (17.4%).
  • Business Process as a Service (15%).

CRM Takes the Top Spot

  • Gartner estimates 35% of all CRM implementations today use SaaS and, according to their projections, this will grow to over 50% by 2020.
  • Forrester Research predicted the SaaS market will explode from $21 billion in 2011 to $63 billion by 2014.
  • Commenters agree that CRM will top the charts in the SaaS space so if you are one of the many who will be investing in a new CRM, make sure that you choose the right one that delivers exactly what you need; as 18.7% of businesses don’t.