IDC Roadshow expands to helps small and medium-sized organizations get it right today for success tomorrow

Aimed at helping small and medium-sized organizations make better use if IT, IDC's SMB Roadshow creates a forum for showing SMBs how to install hardware, software and systems that can be easily expanded and adjusted to meet changing businesses and respond to the rapidly evolving economic and regulatory environment.

The roadshow will feature keynote addresses from IDC experts, industry luminaries, leaders of trade organizations, and national and local governments.

SMBs account for more than 98% of the companies in the Middle East and Africa and are paramount to the economic success of the region. While they currently account for more than a third of IT investments, their spending power is growing.

"While IT is now essential for doing business, it is still largely underused by many SMBs," says Philip van Heerden, Research Manager, IDC MEA.

"Sometimes it is simply a matter of not having a dedicated IT manager capable of connecting IT goals to business goals. Sometimes it is a matter of having the wrong or inadequate systems in place. By taking careful inventory of their situation and changing or upgrading systems accordingly, SMBs can get much more from their IT and set themselves up, at least from a technological perspective, for sustained growth."

It aims at helping SMBs create IT partnerships that enables them to increase efficiency, improve possibility, and face the economic and competitive challenges of the region. The Roadshow will address:

- Scalable Infrastructure - Optimize investment flexibility for the smart small business

- Securing Business - Manage the transition from controlling manual systems to exposure online

- Mobility for Middle East SMB's - Create worker flexibility with flexible worker solutions

- Data Management - Storage, archiving, recovery (storage made simple for SMB's)

- CRM - Using technology to save time and improve customer relations

- Technology and SMB's - Best practices for using IT in an SMB

- Outsourcing for SMB's - One size does not fit all

The SMB Roadshow is ideally suited to CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, Strategists, Product and Service Managers, and Business Development Executives from the key industries of:

- Business Services
- Education
- Healthcare
- Legal Services
- Public Administration
- Construction
- Transportation
- Utilities and Logistics
- Trade (including Wholesale)
- Manufacturing, Media