Conversational agents, IoT and application integrations are the three technologies that will have the most impact on French SMEs by 2021 according to a new Capterra study. Security is now also one of their priorities.

The Capterra software comparison platform has just published a new study outlining a technological trend that is sure to impact the strategies, budgets, and investments of French SMEs over the next two years. The popularization of technologies formerly perceived as futuristic, such as chatbots, mixed reality, or even artificial intelligence, now makes them accessible to all forms of companies in order to modernize and streamline their processes while accelerating their digital transformation. Driven by customer requests, improved productivity, and competitive pressure, SMEs are also forced to evolve and give in to the sirens of new technologies.

For 70% of French SME managers, new technologies have a direct impact on their business. This is particularly true of finance software (for 72% of respondents, finance, and accounting software are the first tools currently having an impact on their business) but also data security software.

Security has moreover become one of the themes which have the most influence on the processes and budgets of SMEs. It is true that for more than a year, the authorities have been urging large companies to put pressure on SMEs that are their suppliers and partners so that they can upgrade in terms of cybersecurity. Because these SMEs often serve as gateways to large companies. ” The attackers have fully understood that to hit certain targets, it is much more efficient, simpler, to attack their providers, their supply chain, ” said Guillaume Poupard, director of ANSSI, on the FIC 2019.
This probably explains in part why 68% of respondents to the Capterra study consider data and information security as the most used technology in front of finance and accounting tools and in front of CRM. For Capterra, ”  these three technologies complement each other and form the trilogy of technologies essential to any SME  “.

Mixed reality (virtual reality and/or augmented reality), conversational agents, and Machine Learning are now considered by French SMEs as the three new technologies that will have the highest growth potential for 2020-2021. It is quite logical. Mixed reality is really starting to materialize in points of sale, in tourism, in real estate, whether for training or to offer new experiences to customers and facilitate sales.
The development of intelligence is now very transversal. AI invests in office automation tools such as business software, ERP, or security tools. Employees of SMEs are therefore confronted in spite of themselves. In addition, solutions in SaaS mode have made data exploitation tools more accessible and simpler to implement and Machine Learning is democratized through their “Auto-ML” type functions.
Chatbots have taken over e-commerce platforms and online media to the point that many customers now expect to be able to interact with such automated agents in their online experiences. For Capterra, the integration needs to be generated in particular by the rise of conversational agents (but also by the proliferation of SaaS solutions) explain why the integration of applications is in the Top 3 technologies whose impact is particularly expected by SMEs by 2021.

The fact remains that, as the Capterra study shows, the technologies that will have the most impact are not necessarily those in which our SMEs intend to invest immediately. So, when asked about their investment forecasts and the technologies in which they want to invest in priority, the managers interviewed the first vote for HR software! However, the amount planned is also the lowest, with an average budget of $ 22,700. It is true that SMEs have often been poor children in terms of HR management support tools. The arrival of new solutions in SaaS mode in the form of a subscription makes these tools much more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses.
The same is true of digital marketing, which is gradually becoming one of the essential levers, while digital transformation is leading SMEs to embark on online activities through their own shops or different marketplaces on the Net.
Data and information security are also in the Top 3 investments, which is both reassuring and consistent with what we saw above.
The Capterra report also notes ” Although only 16% of companies surveyed have budgeted for autonomous vehicles and 16% for artificial intelligence and natural learning (also called machine learning), these technologies currently benefit from a relatively high average budget: 54,300 dollars for the former and $ 51,900 for the latter. 3D printing, for its part, is allocated an average budget of $ 39,500 by 17% of respondents. “

Finally, the obstacles perceived by SMEs in this adoption of new technologies are primarily the financing of investment (for 45% of respondents), the internal skills to be adapted (for 42% of respondents) and changes in practices of the company (for 40% of the respondents).

In short, SMEs are also evolving and the Capterra study shows that they are both aware of the need to adopt the new flagship technologies of the moment and of the importance of cybersecurity in their activities. Reassuring…