HP Exec: Small, Midsize Businesses Must Tackle IT AggressivelyHP Exec: Small, Midsize Businesses Must Tackle IT Aggressively

Small- and midsize businesses should be as aggressive about using technology to grow sales as their larger counterparts, says Kevin Gilroy, senior VP for Hewlett-Packard's small- and midsize-business group. "The vast majority of SMB's don't have CIO's but they still need to access IT expertise," Gilroy said Wednesday while delivering a keynote at the TechXNY technology trade show in New York.

To get that expertise, Gilroy says small and midsize business owners should seek out value-added resellers that offer more than just integration services. They should, Gilroy said, find VARs that focus specifically on their industry and can offer solutions that add business value.

For their part, Gilroy said, most VARs need to do a better job learning about their customers' businesses. "Resellers need to transition from having a transaction focus to a solution-based model" through which they can act as a virtual CIO for their customers, Gilroy said.

Most technology vendors, including HP and IBM, depend on VARs to reach smaller customers. Some others, most notably Dell, prefer a direct sales model. Regardless of how they approach it, the market is becoming increasingly important to IT vendors because it is growing faster than the large enterprise market. According to a study released earlier this year by Access Markets International Partners, spending on business software by U.S. small and midsize businesses will grow 14.3%, compared with a 4.9% increase by large enterprises.

Gilroy, however, cautioned small business owners against spending on technology for its own sake, noting that many dot-coms failed because they "pursued technology regardless of their business strategy." Rather, Gilroy said, businesses of all sizes need to ensure that "their business strategy defines their IT strategy."