Microsoft Study Reveals Small Business IT Sophistication: Global study of small businesses reveals growing demand for software as a service.

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The research also highlighted that some emerging markets are outpacing western countries in terms of new technology adoption. About 87 percent of Russian small businesses surveyed have branded company e-mail, while 63 percent have a customer database and an above-average 24 percent use mobile e-mail. Similarly, Russian small businesses are the most likely to have IT (97 percent), while fewer (91 percent) U.S. small businesses used IT.

Meanwhile, 67 percent of Chinese small businesses use social networking applications to talk to existing customers and 57 percent use them to promote their business. That compares with just 26 percent and 24 percent, respectively, of small businesses in the U.K. — typically seen as a mature market — that use social networking to talk to existing customers or promote their business. The research also found that 65 percent of the small businesses surveyed would consider buying IT services on a subscription basis, such as hosted e-mail, shared calendaring and other applications.

Microsoft Study Reveals Small Business IT Sophistication: Global study of small businesses reveals growing demand for software as a service.