Michael Turney, vice-president of marketing for Cisco Systems Canada
Small business is the fastest-growing business segment in Canada, and advances in technology will help power this growth even more, says Michael Turney, vice-president of marketing for Cisco Systems Canada.
We asked Mr. Turney how technology will improve the way small and medium-sized businesses operate and help them maximize efficiency.
What technology is emerging that could have a big impact on small business?
In our world we talk a lot and hear a lot about the Internet of Things [in which everyday objects have network connectivity]. Some stats suggest there are 6.4 billion connected devices now, with 38 billion to come by 2020. Whatever the number, there are going to be sensors on everything. The opportunity to collect and move all that data to make better decisions faster – that's our sweet spot, and that's an area where we're seeing tremendous growth, particularly on the manufacturing side.
There are lots of opportunities in Canada for reducing unplanned machine down time, simple things like sensors and the opportunity to reduce the cost of cable to have all the machinery connected.
Collaboration is absolutely another thing, whether it's full-on videoconferencing and telepresence with remote workers or experts that you can bring into a real-life experience.
The cloud is something that we've all looked at. I would say it's not growing as fast as some of the earlier predictions had suggested. That's partly due to the economy in Canada right now. There's also a conservative environment, so although we're seeing slower adoption in the cloud generally speaking, where we are seeing the adoption is for some of those Internet of Things examples.
Security is something where it really doesn't matter how big you are – it's critical. It's driven by fear and that's not a bad thing. It's pushing a lot of organizations to evaluate not just the protection of their customer data but their own IP address and frankly their brand.
Do small businesses do enough to take advantage of technology? What could they do better?
I would say yes. We are one of the most connected countries in the world, based on our Internet connectivity and wireless penetration, smartphone ownership and mobile app usage. It's really the consumerization of business technology that is enabling small businesses in Canada to be innovative leaders without having to make the big ticket capital requirements or IT investment that some of the enterprises had to in the past.
So there's no excuse not doing this, and the infrastructure is there in many ways. The government's even providing funding; in Trudeau's cabinet we've got Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains leading the innovation charge and we're seeing the government investing large amounts of money in this area. So again it's another way to dissuade any excuses, the path's been made pretty clear for folks to start adopting this stuff.
Which small businesses are best situated to reap the benefits of technology?
The financial services industry, as the banks become further desegregated from basic transactions. Manufacturing and retail will surely benefit from today's collaboration and telepresence solutions. These industries have the most to gain from being early adopters.
How big a concern should cybersecurity be for small businesses?
It doesn't matter how big an organization is, all businesses need to take precautions. The number of threat points is growing every day. Every time a small business increases its channels, the number of ways it reaches out and engages with customers, it is exposing itself to somebody presenting a security risk.
In October we acquired a company called Sourcefire Inc., essentially a developer of network and security hardware and software, and today it's one of the fastest-growing areas of our business.
Canada might be a bit of a laggard in some ways around security – not from an enterprise and bank perspective, but in the SMB space, although that sector is starting to embrace security these days. [Cisco's midyear 2016 security report showed that Canada has the highest rate of website attacks in the Americas.]
How enthusiastically are small businesses embracing new technology?
We'll always have laggards and early adopters. But there are fewer valid excuses out there. The funding is available, and SMBs could use the cloud to get their toe in the door and not have to make that capital expense.