Commissioned by technology outsourcing business I.T on Tap, the survey found that despite the high usage businesses had little idea how the various components worked.

I.T. on Tap claims the ignorance of small business owners leave them vulnerable to exploitation or cost overruns….

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The company provides IT systems, software and support over the internet, freeing business owners from costly requirements such as servers, technicians, licences, backup, data security and even virus solutions.

I.T. on Tap founder and managing director Ken Wood said small businesses in regional areas often found it hard to access a range of expert IT services.

“In the cities, small businesses start from behind because it’s hard to get good guys to work on the low-end systems that small businesses have,” Mr Wood said.

“As soon as you get out from the city to regional areas, it gets that much harder again,” he said…..read more.

Mr Wood’s business, IT on Tap, focuses on moving all of a business’s information and data away from the office, streamlining the way the company moves and ensuring everything stays safe.

“They don’t need servers or IT consultants,” Mr Wood said.

“Lots of small businesses are fairly light on IT skills and they probably don’t have anyone in-house.

“They rely on a local PC consultant who might not be a specialist in what they need.”

Through IT On Tap, companies are supplied with a web address, where they log in with a name and password, and from there they have full access to everything they need.

There’s no need to keep saved data on office computers because it’s all kept safely off-site.

Mr Wood said it was common to see businesses not backing up important data or storing their backup in the office, which could leave it vulnerable in case of fire or break-ins.

“We take it all off their hands,” he said.

“We do all the housekeeping, the spam filtering and virus protection…..read more.

SaaS AS PART OF A SMALL BUSINESS SOLUTION
One company that has picked up the SaaS ball and run with it is small business hosting company I.T. on Tap.

Founder Ken Wood explains that small businesses face some unique challenges in adopting SaaS, “SMBs have all the same issues as large companies around integrating SaaS with their existing software and business processes. The difference is that small companies need to achieve that on a much smaller budget and with limited I.T. expertise available.”

I.T. on Tap aims to meet the full range of SMB software needs for a single monthly subscription, combining SaaS with traditional applications such as Microsoft Office, Exchange and Outlook.

“Small businesses owners are busy people, so having to deal with 3 or 4 service providers who each provide one piece of the solution is far too time-consuming. Our approach is all-in-one: we host and manage all their software, SaaS and non-SaaS together”…..read more.

According to an I.T.onTap survey of 535 small business owners, the majority (30.9 percent) of those over five years old reported a high level of IT usage, including self management of a website, customer relationship management tools and e-marketing programs…read more.

Outsourcing your IT needs doesn’t have to be daunting, in fact it’s quite a relief to many SMEs and IT on Tap is an out-of-sight solution that will save your sanity and your wallet…..read more.