Our company, Zapatec, http://www.zapatec.com offers tools and a platform
to build an online database.  We are offering a solution targeted to
the small business market and are looking at offering customized web-based
applications for small businesses, built on top of our generic
platform.

Our question:
What are the most popluar web-based applications for small and medium
sized businesses (less than 100 employees) as measured by the amount of 
money spent for these applications?

---

Request for Question Clarification by willie-ga on 26 Oct 2002 01:45 PDT

Hello

I've found a report that details exactly what you want at
Application Expenditures & Adoption of Hosted Services in the Small
Business Market (5 to 99 employees)
http://www.instat.com/abstracts/ms/small/2000/sm0009eb_abs.htm

It cost $1995

Are you looking to get the same info as this?

willie-ga

---

Clarification of Question by jules_zapatec-ga on 26 Oct 2002 18:08 PDT

willie-ga,

Yes - this is the information we are looking for - but without the
price tag attached to purchasing a report like this one:
http://www.instat.com/abstracts/ms/small/2000/sm0009eb_abs.htm

---

Request for Question Clarification by pelican-ga on 05 Nov 2002 19:17 PST

There may be other, equivalent sources of information, which are
available free of charge and would be a proper answer to your
question.  For example, may I suggest you take a look at the SBA
research report, "E-Biz: Strategies for Small Business Success", by
Joanne H. Pratt, dated October 2002.  This report can be downloaded
free of charge from

http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs220tot.pdf

and provides popularity and cost data for categories of applications. 
For example, 83% of small businesses use email, 80% gather information
from the web, 61% purchase goods and services online, and 35% sell
their products via their web site.  This is of course for all kinds of
businesses.  If you are thinking in terms of customized applications
for various kinds of small businesses, this would seem to indicate
that customized web-based applications for email, search, buying, and
selling may be priorities to consider.

However, depending on the openness of your generic platform, and in
order to make sure that you don't reinvent the wheel, you may want to
check the (almost) infinite number of specific products already
available.  For this, I would recommend "Small Business Computing",

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/

as a good starting point for searching, in order to isolate
customization niches yet to be filled in those businesses that use (or
can use) your generic platform.  Are these sources useful to support
your decision making?

---

Clarification of Question by jules_zapatec-ga on 06 Nov 2002 11:50 PST

pelican-ga 

The information you provided does not really help narrow down 
what we are looking for. I would say the information in a report like this:
http://www.instat.com/abstracts/ms/small/2000/sm0009eb_abs.htm -- 
would help us to determine the market opportunity for web applications on our 
platform.

Hello jules_zapatec-ga,

I see by your responses to the requests for clarification that you
would very much like to have a low-end version of the $1995 InStatMDR
Market Report.
http://www.instat.com/abstracts/ms/small/2000/sm0009eb_abs.htm
All Business is eBusiness: Application Expenditures & Adoption of
Hosted Services in the Small Business Market (5 to 99 employees)

It was very tough, but I think I’ve found some resources that in
combination should provide a good deal of what is in the more
expensive report. The most likely to be of interest are two reports
from Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

http://www.ami-usa.com/ASP_whitepaper_121700w.doc
AMI-Partners, Inc., November 2000
Delivering ASP Services to SBs: Key Success Factors
This is a 20 page White Paper with lots of graphs that addresses the
adoption of hosted services in the Small Business Market.. On page 7
there is a statistic that should be very interesting. It states that
14% of all PC-owning small businesses showed significant interest in
hosted applications and appear to be good candidates to purchase them
but only 3% said they were likely to implement hosted applications in
the coming year. This is an alert that there are complex issues
involved in succeeding the hosted application arena.

http://www.ami-usa.com/SMBEnterpriseSWLandscapeV4_5-20-02.doc
Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc, May 2002
Enterprise Software in the U.S. SMB Market: Catching up to the Vision
This is a 4 page report on the SMB market. It gives market valuation
statistics and graphs for the MB segment of the market.

http://www-1.ibm.com/businesscenter/us/smbusapub.nsf/detailcontacts/register2C4FB
IBM Small Business Center
What's your pattern of technology adoption?
In general, AMI segments Small Business and Medium Business markets
into four tiers according to their propensity to adopt and absorb IT
products and services. For Small Businesses, the four tiers are:



I also found some abstracts and articles based on Jupiter Research’s
MARKETS Smallbiz reports. These discuss various aspects of the
prognosis for SMBs adopting hosted applications.

http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/smallbiz/article/0,,10098_962751,00.html
Jupiter Research – MARKETS-SmallBiz, January 28, 2002
SMBs Could Drive Software Market
This article cites survey results with statistics for the SMB market’s
adoption rates for software implementation.

http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/smallbiz/article/0,,10098_1439851,00.html
Jupiter Research – MARKETS Smallbiz
SMBs Adopt Automation Apps
This article includes market valuation statistics.



It is apparent from the business press that the SMB market is very
appealing as a growth area in the software arena. Microsoft created a
stir by joining the fray. I’ve included several articles that review
this emerging situation.

http://members.microsoft.com/partner/salesmarketing/salestools/presentations/partner.ppt
Building a Small Business Around Microsoft Small Business Server 2000
PowerPoint – Slide 10 – Small Business Customer Segmentation, Slide 11
– by Company Size.

http://www.redherring.com/insider/2002/09/fieldday091302.html
September 13, 2002
A Field Day 
In 2005, Microsoft will harvest a new cash crop . . . hearty business
applications grown on the Great Plains.
This is a long article discussing the anticipated impact of Microsoft
entering the SMB the business application market.

http://www.semiseeknews.com/press_release4321.htm
http://www.gartner.com/pages/story.php.id.2695.s.8.jsp
Nov 4, 2002
Gartner Dataquest Says Top-Tier Software Vendors Are Gaining Market
Share At the Expense of Pure-Play Vendors
Spotlight Report Examines Trends For the Software Industry
This is a collection of related articles based on recent research by
Dataquest on current trends in the software industry.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/Your_Business/YB_SegArticle/0,4621,298388-----,00.html
April 01, 2002, Small Business's Internet Usage
This article provides graphs and stats on small business internet
services adoption and segmentation.

August 12, 2002
Harvesting the Green
With large enterprises cutting IT spending, large software vendors are
working to reap more revenues from small and midsize businesses.
There is little argument that small-business managers don't have the
time or resources to operate a complex IT infrastructure. But they
need to move as fast as large enterprises to be successful. That is
why they welcome bundles.

http://www.apps4biz.com/news/PDF/apps4biz_CorporateProfile_MKTG0402.pdf
AppsBiz Corporate Profile
This appears to be an excerpt from the company’s business plan and
makes a good presentation of the SMB marketplace.

Although I couldn’t get a bootleg copy of the expensive market
research report, I hope that this information will meet your needs.

czh

SEARCH STRATEGY
Application Expenditures & Adoption of Hosted Services in the Small
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Forrester Research, "Sizing App Hosting,"
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