New Survey Shines Light on Evolution of IT Role Within Small- and Mid-Sized Businesses

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent survey of more than 500 decision makers shows that the IT role within small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) is evolving to include business development and day-to-day operations responsibilities.

The survey, conducted by Zoomerang Online Surveys and Polls, provides a glimpse of how IT is managed among SMBs and offers a snapshot of cloud computing awareness and adoption.

According to the survey, of the 78 percent indicating they have in-house support, 79 percent said that the role of IT is involved in other areas of the business, including operations, business development and sales. Of the 22 percent outsourcing support to vendors, 52 percent cited cost as the primary reason.

"More often than not, the IT role within a small or midsized business may be fulfilled by the most technology savvy employee, requiring them to juggle multiple responsibilities on top of keeping the company's technology up and running," said Alex Terry, General Manager of Zoomerang. "With limited resources, businesses are looking to every employee to contribute and as a result, the IT role is gradually shifting from one of support to one of support and revenue generation."

Following a traditional path of conservative investment in technology, SMBs have been slow to adopt new technologies, such as cloud computing. The survey found that only 10 percent of SMBs have deployed cloud technologies and 72 percent of respondents don't understand or are not familiar with the technology.

"These numbers are quite staggering given that cloud vendors are investing huge amounts of money in marketing to showcase the benefits of cloud computing," Terry said. "This research points to the need for cloud vendors to instead educate business owners on what cloud computing means and how it is relevant to SMBs."

Of the businesses currently without cloud computing technologies, only 2 percent plan to deploy cloud-based solutions this year, with an additional 20 percent still weighing the cost and benefits of various solutions.

For more information on the survey and its results, visit http://www.zoomerang.com/blog/2011/05/02/cloud-computing-and-role-it-professionals-smbs to view the report in its entirety.

About Zoomerang

Zoomerang is a fast, easy-to-use and powerful tool to make and send your own online surveys and polls.  Millions of people and thousands of businesses, non-profits and educational institutions trust Zoomerang online surveys and polls to gather feedback allowing them to make better decisions with minimal cost and effort. Zoomerang provides customizable survey templates for the most common questions including customer satisfaction, meeting feedback, product feedback, event planning, online voting and hundreds more. Zoomerang customers can take advantage of Zoomerang Sample, a panel of more than 2.5 million consumers ready to take surveys.  Zoomerang is a product of MarketTools Inc.  For more information, visit www.zoomerang.com.

About MarketTools, Inc.

MarketTools is the leading provider of software and services for market research and enterprise feedback management (EFM). The company is focused on providing leading organizations the actionable customer insights they need to make better business decisions that lead to high-value business impact. As the first company to make online surveys widely available on the Web, MarketTools continues its market leading position by providing the broadest range of powerful, accurate and integrated customer insight technologies that empower companies to become the most customer-centric organizations in their industries. MarketTools' premier portfolio of technology-based insight brands includes CustomerSat™, TrueSample®, Zoomerang®, ZoomPanel® and ZoomPanel Tech™.

MarketTools is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco and European headquarters in London. For more information, please visit: http://www.markettools.com.

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SOURCE Zoomerang