Budapest, March 3, 2014 15:30

Only one seventh of Hungarian SMEs are considered fully mobile from the IT point of view, having IT tools and background enabling emailing and accessing the internet away from the office and the desk.

Currently the majority of Hungarian SMEs do not use laptops, smartphones or mobile internet and in their own judgment they lack the necessary, sophisticated IT infrastructure. In 75% of companies employing 10-50 people the majority of associates can not reach the intranet from externally. Every fifth Hungarian SME - 22% of companies with 10-50 employees - are stuck at the technical level of decades ago, which may cause competitive disadvantages for them - as revealed by the representative research1carried out by interviewing IT decision makers.

Less than one third of Hungarian enterprises make laptops available to the majority of employees - while only every fifth company provides smartphones and mobile internet to the majority of white collar employees. The research outlined though that the intent to develop is evident everywhere: SMEs purchase smartphones and laptops if they can afford or if they need them. The great majority (86%) of Hungarian SMEs implemented some kind of IT or telecommunication investment in the past 2 years, while one third (35%) plans this in the coming year.

"From the IT mobility point of view it bears huge importance to what extent companies tie work to be done on computer to their company site and existing infrastructure. Upon an entrepreneur launching his company, numerous questions arise immediately, which will define the long term operation of the company, e.g.: do they want to enable remote access to the mail system, in case of the files, documents and servers to be used for work. Does the company provide tools enabling mobility to employees? Do they use mobility and cloud based services providing transparency and synchrony between different tools?" - said Péter Lakatos, chief officer of Magyar Telekom responsible for SME services.

Manager making decisions about the IT systems of companies also believe that they are lagging behind: the research revealed that only every eighth company stated that they were equipped with modern infrastructure. "Practical experiences show the currently the stable and secure IT background, embracing and serving the companies unnoticed is an inevitable precondition for any enterprise to be successful" - added the expert of Telekom. "It is important to help SMEs with solutions and services, specifically tailored for them. We need to provide these services by minimizing the time required from the customer to spend on them, still they should rest assured that the solution work safely and meeting all requirements."

Telekom - as market leader service provider - targets to assist less developed companies, currently still lacking IT mobility in catching up, by offering office tools inevitable in business life. Aligned with the above market requirement, Telekom offers micro companies and SMEs new office IT tools, primarily laptops and mobile internet tariff packages, without any initial investment costs. As part of the new Telekom offers, on the first occasion IT tools ordered are also put in use, furthermore - as on-site assistance - data stored on the old machines are also transferred to the new tools. Telekom offers the Office software package with new machines ordered. The Office 365 services meet the requirements of even large companies and are enable any size of company to use features ranging from simple word editing to presentation generator, programs enabling document sharing and business emailing. Consequent to the cloud service, the latest Office programs are available in legally clean versions, using those corporate documents and emails are available anywhere upon connecting to the net, making remote working away from the office easier.

1 The survey was carried out between January 27 and February 5,  2014. Telephone interviews were made with people, who are decision makers in procuring and operating IT tools and services, within Hungarian SMEs using at least 3 IT tools (PC or laptop). The interviewed 202 companies are representative regarding Hungarian SMEs employing 10-50 people, based on regions, scope of activity and size.

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