The use of Internet-based applications for business is on the increase, our online survey of 500 small UK businesses for Intuit UK has found. The online survey of 500 UK small businesses was commissioned by Intuit UK, which on 5th April launched QuickBooks Online, providing easy online money management for small businesses.
- Over one third (38%) of senior decision makers in UK small businesses are ‘in the cloud’ – using one or more Internet-based applications (excluding email and online phone services) to help run their business
- Almost one in 10 (9%), say they would like to use online services for all their main business applications.
- 70% say the ability to access documents or services from anywhere is a significant reason for using cloud-based services
- 49% feel that being able to share documents easily is a major reason for using online services
- While 41% say that it saves them time as they don’t have to install software
- The most likely small business senior managers to work using online services is either aged 35-44 (63%) , London-based (66%), or a Mac user (71%).
Small businesses going online
Among some of the online or cloud-based services small businesses expect to use in the next 12 months were storage or document sharing (21%), word processing, spreadsheet or presentation services (16%), financial management (13%) and customer relationship management services (9%).
Pernille Bruun-Jensen, managing director of Intuit UK, explained the role of the company’s new product.
‘In launching QuickBooks Online, we are helping this new generation of businesses to securely access their books online and keep on top of their finances wherever they are. QuickBooks Online is new and tailored for the UK market, but built on a decade of experience in the US,’ he said, also highlighting that ‘small businesses in the UK are showing increasing confidence toward using online services to manage core business functions such as financial management.’
