Meeting SMEs need for IT : Exploring management issues of IT service deliveries to SMEs in Sweden

Abstract: Information technology provides organisations with effective system that facilitates their work which every enterprise is in need of. Large enterprises have always been a candidate for the market but now the market for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is growing and they are able to be competitive in their area of expertise. IT service companies who wants to work with SMEs must be aware of the conditions of IT implementation and IT adoption to be able to provide SMEs with the needed services. However, there is not enough research about the conditions for SMEs in Sweden which makes this an interesting area to study. This thesis tries to create a better understanding of what the conditions are for IT implementation and IT adoption in Swedish SMEs. A case study was conducted on one of the biggest IT service companies in Sweden and three semi-structured interviews were performed with employees. The employees had different roles but they all had experience about working with SMEs. The interviews combined with the related research made it possible to define some of the conditions of IT implementation and IT adoption. Forinstance, SMEs are in need of fast and cheap solutions because of their lack of long term planning. The size of SMEs and their lack of financial funds can prevent them from buying IT services if the IT service companies do not create solutions based on the conditions of SMEs.