One of the most important technologies that businesses currently use is their phone system; it’s relied upon daily to communicate with customers via voice calls, video conferencing, and more. The latest innovation in the business phone industry is Unified Communications, a term that refers to unifying all streams of communication into a single platform to foster smarter analytics for business decision-makers as well as increase workforce productivity by improving user experience. Like other technologies, knowing your business size classification can help you to understand what you need from a communications solution and the benefits it can bring your organization, enabling you to ultimately make a smarter decision.
SMB, SME, and Large Enterprise: Why Your Company Size Classification Matters
As you probably realize, these acronyms are size classifications for companies – and your business most likely fits within one of the classifications. Although it may not seem like a big deal, understanding how others classify your business can make a difference, especially when it comes to choosing technology solutions that best fit your particular business.
Depending on whom you ask, there are several definitions and key differentiators that influence the classification into which your business falls. The widely accepted definition of each business size classification is based on the number of employees and annual revenue – and even those classification ranges can vary. For example, “SMB” includes the general term of small business, but a small business can be broken down further.
In addition to size and revenue, your buying habits and technology needs also typically align with a particular business size classification. Many technology solutions are built with these classifications in mind, or at least have features and pricing that correlate to the business classifications. Understanding which category your business falls into can help you define your objectives, specify capabilities, and then match those to the right technology solutions.
What is SMB?
- What does the SMB acronym stand for? SMB stands for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
- What is considered a small business? What is considered a medium-sized business? Employees: 0-100 is considered a small-sized business; 100-999 is considered a medium-sized business. Note that these size specifications may be defined differently by some government organizations, such as the Small Business Administration (SBA) which uses the size specifications as part of its process for granting small business loans and for consideration of awarding Federal contracts.
- Annual Revenue: $5-$10 million
- IT Staff: Typically one or a few
- IT skills: Modest. Employees usually learn on the job.
- Location: Limited geographical boundaries (but may have more remote workers due to outsourcing)
- Limited CapEx
- Main considerations for technology purchases include price (because of limited CapEx) and ease of use (because of less experienced IT staff). SMBs prefer the pay-as-you-go subscription model for software purchases
- The 28 million small businesses in the US account for 54% of the country’s sales
What is SME?
- What does the SME acronym stand for? Small and Medium Enterprises. Also known as the “Mid-Market”
- What is SME? How is SME different from SMB? The SME definition is more globally-used than SMB , and is the official market phrase for internationally-based enterprises such as the United Nations, World Bank, World Trade Organization and the European Union.
- Employees: The European Union has defined an SME as a legally independent company with 101-500 employees
- Annual Revenue: $10 million- 800 billion
- IT staff: A small group to several employees
- IT skills: Generalist skills. Employees often lack specialty skills
- Location: Likely to have more than one office location, and more remote employees
- Some CapEx
- Main considerations for technology purchases include capabilities, functionality, and reporting
- If the middle market were a country, its GDP would rank it as the fourth-largest economy in the world
Large enterprise determining features:
Small Business VS. Large Business: When Company Size Makes a Difference
As I mentioned, whether you are considered an SMB business, an SME, or a large enterprise influences many things, such as how financial decisions are made, the way your technology needs are framed, and how solution providers treat you during the sales process. When dealing with SMBs, for example, solution providers are often trained to focus on the cost savings and ease-of-use of the solution and are aware that budget is usually a key factor influencing your decision. A vendor considers it highly likely that the purchaser of the solution (you) will be the one using the solution on a daily basis.
In the case of the enterprise level company, the provider won’t focus as much on price and ease-of-use as it might on security and advanced features, for example. Keeping this information in mind, if your individual circumstance strays from the norm, you should inform the vendor so they can give you the specific information you need. Let’s say you are an SMB business and happen to have multiple locations or a large CapEx, your solution provider may be able to offer you a product or feature that they normally wouldn’t mention to a smaller business.
Next Steps
Now that you know why your business class matters, and you can determine whether your organization is a SMB, SME or large enterprise, we invite you to explore the products and services we offer to companies of all sizes.
Modern businesses of all sizes (SMB, SME and large enterprises) are requiring more sophisticated technology to better serve their customers. For organizations who are still using legacy telephony, it’s time to start the search for the best business phone system – and Sangoma is here to help. Let us help you select the best business phone system for your organization.
Unified Communications is not just for larger companies “that have the money” to spend on it. Unified Communications has become necessary for all companies. Today’s workforce arrives with the need to be mobile, the need to improve efficiency, and the need to reduce or at least streamline costs. That’s why SMBs need Unified Communications .
Sangoma Meet is a video conferencing tool that actually makes meetings better. Plan, host, and share your meetings. Sangoma Meet secures your information and safeguard your privacy, allows you to meet from anywhere on any device, and integrates with your existing technology investments.
Do you know what SIP trunking is and how SIP trunking works ? Take a minute to read about the basics of SIP Trunking. After learning more, explore our whitepaper to help you determine which SIP trunking is right for your business . Then learn why SIP Trunking channelized pricing is perfect for businesses that prefer a set, predictable monthly phone bill.
Sources:
https://www.sangoma.com/articles/smb-sme-large-enterprise-size-business-matters/
