Big companies are not the only ones that are moving increasingly to implement new Web technologies. Small and midsize businesses are rapidly deploying advanced tools like AJAX, Web 2.0 and rich Internet applications, according to CIO Insight‘s 2008 Emerging Technologies Survey.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Just as in our past studies, a significant number of midmarket CIOs describe their companies as early adopters of leading-edge technologies. That’s a benefit of being smaller: There’s less red tape to deal with when pursuing and justifying investments in emerging technologies.
But that may change. Midtier firms emphasize cost-cutting much less than large companies do, yet midmarket CIOs say they’re being pressured as much as their big-company counterparts to attach hard-dollar figures to the less tangible benefits of their technology investments. Though this trend, fueled by the weak economy, may slow their efforts to implement emerging technologies, it won’t derail these midmarket businesses.
–Research analysis by Guy Currier