SMEs are upbeat in their outlook for the year ahead, despite the threat posed by Brexit with almost two thirds (62%) claiming that the health of their business has improved in the past 12 months.
Results of the research from Vodafone Ireland, show that the past 12 months have been positive for the majority of SMEs that were surveyed, 66% are positive and confident about the next 12 months, 61% felt that the overall health of their industry has improved and 59% said that Ireland has improved as a place to do business.
Embracing technology is an important enabler to SMEs, with 96% of those surveyed having a website and 68% having a social media presence. However, only 34% have the ability to process orders online.
Changes or advancements in technology and systems available that allow SME’s to better interact with customers’ (39%) and ‘advancements in technology and systems available to run operations’ (37%) are seen as the biggest opportunities for businesses.
In terms of the challenges that SMEs are facing, 67% said they are concerned that they may miss out on business opportunities due to poor communications infrastructure.
61% stated that it can be difficult at times to coordinate communications between their business and clients /customers. 25% of employees in SME’s surveyed said that they have personally missed a call or email which lead or resulted in a missed business opportunity.
FURTHER INSIGHT
The research also had some compelling insights into how SMEs are running their businesses in Ireland in 2017. 63% of SMEs surveyed provide mobiles, tablets or desk phones to its employees, and nearly three quarters (73%) said that they and their staff have a high to moderate level of flexibility where they work.
29% of SMEs source revenue from online sales. Of these, 41% have said that the revenue from their online sales has increased over the past two years.
53% said that the percentage of revenue sourced from online sales has remained the same over the past two years, while only 5% said the percentage of revenue from online sales has decreased over the past two years.
