2008, Leimstoll, Uwe, Schubert, Petra, Fisher, Julie

The outsourcing of ICT services has been common place in large organizations for many years. To date, most of the published research has focused on large organizations with very limited discussion exploring outsourcing in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper reports on a major study (based on 900 completed questionnaires) of Swiss SMEs and their approach to outsourcing. The results presented in this paper are weighted according to company size and industry sector and are in this respect representative for Switzerland. The findings are presented in four main conclusions and six identified clusters (typical company profiles). ICT outsourcing for SMEs is primarily focused on Maintenance and Support. The majority of SMEs using outsourcing have achieved positive outcomes as a result. Smaller SMEs are more likely to consider outsourcing than their larger counterparts. Suppliers of external ICT services specialised on selective, definable services seem to be at an advantage.

2007, Schubert, Petra, Fisher, Julie, Leimstoll, Uwe

The small business sector is very important to most economies generating significant wealth and employment. It has generally been accepted that small business owners are less likely to embrace innovation and less likely to have a well-defined business strategy. Yet for companies to grow and continue to be successful innovation is critical. Given the importance of this sector there is a need for governments and policy makers to understand innovation in small business particularly in terms of ICT implementation and use in order to formulate appropriate programs and policies. There have been few studies reported in the literature however, that have looked at innovation in the small business sector. This study investigated small Swiss businesses with 10 to 49 employees. A survey of 389 small businesses found that most see themselves as innovative and most use IT to support innovation.