Mountain View, Calif – Most small businesses in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia are using the cloud and relying on apps to run their business, according to a study by app developer Intuit Inc.
The study, which focused on small businesses in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia, suggests 64 per cent of small businesses run in the cloud, 68 per cent use apps, and 66 per cent use a smartphone. In addition, small businesses owners are seeing – and experiencing – the long-term effects of mobile and web-based apps on their bottom line, allowing them to focus on growing their business, Intuit said in a news release.
Canadian small businesses that use apps most often use them to control costs and reduce expenses, the study says, putting that number at 42 per cent.
The 2016 Appification of Small Business Report provides insights from 2,000 small business owners and/or managers. It also reveals a huge opportunity for small business app developers worldwide. The study also examines the attitude of small business owners who are not using apps to better understand their barriers of entry and the factors that could drive them to use apps.
While tech-savvy businesses are integrating apps in record numbers, they are also running into persistent barriers with existing apps, according to the study. About two-in-five small businesses believe there are too many apps to choose from. Forty-one per cent say they are unsure of which apps are best suited for their business, and 39 per cent are concerned with costs to integrate and train on apps. Complexity was an issue for 23 percent.
Sixty-eight per cent of small businesses in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia are currently using mobile or web-based apps to help run their operations, eliminate administrative tasks and shift their focus to growing their business. A total of 82 percent of small businesses that use apps reported using between one and six apps to run their business.
A representative sample of 500 small businesses in each region (U.S., Canada, Australia, and U.K) were surveyed by Ebiquity from July 13 to 20, 2016. The vast majority of small business owners and managers surveyed have between one and 50 employees. The types of business surveyed were: service-based (50 per cent), product-based (23 per cent), and hybrid (27 per cent).
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