Since its initial appearance, cloud computing was rapidly adopted by small and medium enterprises wishing to gain a comparative advantage.
The reason is that cloud allowed them to compete in equal terms against much larger companies, relieving them from the need of unbearable initial capital investment costs compared to company size. Thanks to the “soft infrastructure” they can operate now even under low levels of cash flow.
This is the case for 750,000 small and medium-sized enterprises representing more than 90 % of Greek businesses and cumulatively about 60 % of GDP. About 30% of SMEs have an extrovert orientation and over half of them use the internet as a unique channel to promote their activities.
This means they have considerable development prospects, by adopting modern technological tools targeting the internet. They can efficiently achieve higher goals by implementing operating models based on cloud computing and promotional tools embedded in popular social networks.
For one more year, the 15th InfoCom World will host companies and organizations that offer tools and solutions, which may give the necessary impetus to SMEs activities through the cloud and social networking. Besides, many entrepreneurs originating from the ‘old economy’ era are faced with the imperative of “transforming” their businesses in order to survive in the “new economy” era.
Last but not least, some of the most successful business case studies will be presented by the people who are running them and make them stand out, in a networked business environment.