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Disruption happened. Not just this year, obviously, but throughout the last three years in particular with the triumvirate forces of infection, invasion and inflation all impacting global supply chains, organizations, communities, families and individuals.
As we continue to try and work out where technology should best be applied to elevate us up and away from the forces of disruption that still circle, there is perhaps a natural temptation to look for macro-level trends, changes impacting whole nation states’ behavior patterns and higher-level truths that (in technology vendor terms) manifest themselves at the platform-level for the widest possible impact.
But sometimes, small is beautiful.
One way we may uncover some new insights is to focus our attention on a smaller surface area. This is the suggestion made by Louisville, Colorado-based JumpCloud, a company which specializes in unified device and identity access management. The firm has paid particular attention to the needs of small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) - and more specifically, how they are running their IT stacks - in order to try and gauge which way the business tech barometer is going to swing next.
The company’s latest SME IT trends analysis has suggestions related to user’s digital identity issues, which should be no surprise for a company that sells Identity and Access Management (IAM) technologhy. But while it claims that there are some changes afoot in terms of how we now prefer to secure ourselves, there are some other factors on the horizon.
Rajat Bhargava, co-founder and CEO at JumpCloud is bullish on what SMEs can do if they listen to their technology teams, pointing out that many of the good things they have been able to achieve over the last few years are due to using tech in more effective ways.
“SMEs would be wise to listen to IT teams’ concerns about the vulnerabilities introduced by tool sprawl and cuts in security budgets, as well as their pleas for tool consolidation and enhanced security,” he said, adding that they could actually improve security and cut some costs if they look at a platform approach,” said Bhargava.
Many of the SME users in JumpCloud’s study, were worried about the global recession. Some 78 percent reported seeing evidence of a recession in their business. A further 34 percent said their organization is or has been ‘severely impacted’ by the potential slowdown that is due. Alongside this, talent availability is an issue as well with 34 percent saying labor shortages would have a significant impact or act as a serious business limiter for them.
Finding it hard to find good people to fill gaps could mean that companies are not able to keep up with all the pressures on them, slowing their projects down and leaving them less competitive.
But according to JumpCloud’s analysis, SMEs are now less concerned about inflation than they were previously. This (in the USA at least) may be due to the US Federal Reserve taking a strong approach to stopping inflation rising and trying to limit demand, or it may be that they have already seen all the prices rising and just factored it into their equations too. Either way, 24 percent said it was a big worry compared to 29 percent earlier in the year, while seven percent said they’re not at all worried.
Cut vs. push-back
As we know, one of the first things that many companies do when faced by recession is cut their costs. Slowing down spending is a natural response. Consequently then, many organizations will drop their budgets across the board. For IT professionals, this does lead to some difficult decisions - but if a business knows it is going to have to make some of those savings, where should it cut... and where should it push back?
Security is probably the most problematic area for this. JumpCloud’s survey found that 44 percent thought their organization will cut spending on cybersecurity in the next year while 41 percent disagreed and said their business would carry on at the rate they currently had in place. For those that thought their spending would drop, there were concerns that those cuts would make them more vulnerable over time, with three quarters saying any drops in security budget would increase organizational risk.
What's the direct impact of this?
Alongside the risk, it leads to more overtime. Around a quarter (26 percent) report they already work ten or more hours more than their job description requires each week, while 31 percent say they work six to nine hours more. Quiet quitting (as nicely defined here by the Guardian: when workers only do the job that they’re being paid to do, without taking on any extra duties) doesn’t exist for this group of IT professionals.
So what can we all learn from these findings?
It’s not a surprise that an IAM vendor thinks a platform approach can help - after all, everything, every app and (in some cases) everyone is a platform these days. But when remote and hybrid working is in place everywhere, areas like identity do become more important. JumpCloud (arguably) puts its money where its mouth is in terms of the S in SME - more than 160,000 enterprises currently use JumpCloud for free as they are under ten user accounts. The company hopes that supporting those smaller companies leads to them growing and becoming paid accounts in the future, or that they tell their colleagues and counterparts how they are doing.
However we define the group (and whether we call them SMEs or SMBs), SMEs make up 90 percent of businesses according to the World Bank, so anything that affects so many ongoing operational entities could have a big impact.
Let's go back to the start then and ask what lessons can we learn from starting into the SME crystal ball? Well, the signs are there around recession and risk, but let’s all hope that we can be more enterprising in 2023.
