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Helping enable the SMB market
By Susan Bravo (Intel) (2 posts) on May 21, 2008 at 9:22 am
As James White talks about in his recent post Intel is daring to try and dazzle the much sought after SMB market with the launch of Intel Business Exchange. I think this is exciting new territory for us as a company and for me personally. I am interested to watch this develop and be part of this effort for two reasons:
- I think Intel actually can help provide business owners with information to find real solutions to help their business grow
- This will afford all of us the chance to explore not just the technology available, but the real business challenges facing this market
So, let’s talk about business problems and new technology -- what new technology is going to prove most helpful to SMBs? Could it be ultra-portable devices like UMPCs and MIDs we are hearing more about lately? UMPCs are targeted at business or home users, while MIDs are traditionally targeted at consumers. With time-savings being a key to profitability, perhaps the value would lie in their ability to help SMBs achieve the “always-connected” dream. This is not a new dream, but one which could be made more feasible for companies that do not have dedicated IT departments.
Deciding to add one of these products to your technology arsenal or to make the switch to one will no doubt depend on the software applications available for these devices. The advantage of UMPCs and MIDs over something like a smartphone is that they don’t actually need custom applications. SMBs benefit from not having to train users on different apps or wait for new versions of their business software to be released for their mobile device. They can run the same program on their PC, UMPC or MID.
In an ideal world ISVs will still optimize and evolve their software to take full advantage of these new hardware platforms and provide their customers with the full benefits of mobility. This will require them to rethink mobility apps, i.e. not just MP3s and browsers, and to stretch the possibilities of their current business apps. Perhaps this is where Intel Business Exchange can help, bridging the gap between these two communities and providing a marketplace for SMBs to ask for and purchase these emerging technology solutions.
Categories: Intel SW Partner Program
Comments (2) 
By Kevin Colgate on July 17th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Thanks this is very good stuff... we are a certified partner with Intel and Spikesource... we are very excited to have the chance to work with Intel on this forthcoming launch!!!
Regards...
By Sue Anne Bravo on July 17th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Thanks Kevin -- we all look forward to working with you as well. If you have a minute please let us all know about the first solution you are having certified.