When one thinks of technology needs in the middle market, one usually thinks of new hardware and software needs and upgrades. Yet, in a impressive sign of sophistication, the middle market managers surveyed generally looked at technology in a more enlightened way – they viewed technology correctly in terms of the data that technology collect for business review and analysis.
This finding can be best encapsulated by a paragraph from the survey itself:
“But if one phrase were to sum up the technology focus of the interviewees, it would be “data-driven.” At Euro-Pro, Mark Barrocas suggests that his company is concentrating on building day-to-day analytics around business metrics. “We’re trying to improve our ability to organize the data and serve it up in way that helps us to make good business decisions. That means investing in capturing the data, building better repositories, analyzing it, and reporting it.”
We cannot agree more with these sentiments as we have built our business building/growth planning advisory on the pillar of data collection and analysis. If middle market managers are in fact getting more diligent with data collection, analysis and planning, much better business results will follow.
In their recently published survey of middle market managers, Deloitte focused specifically on 3 key issues impacting the middle market industry: talent acquisition, technology and financing issues. The study is called “Mid-market perspectives – 2012 report on America’s economic engine”. It can be found at the following link: