Users were down on the future right after Katrina, and it showed in our surveys. Then last month they more than doubled their spending outlook when users realized the economy was still perking along. This month they came back to earth. Small business executives were especially realistic.
I think A lot of small businesses can go home on Friday night and come back to work on Monday and worry about it then, and a lot of large companies can't.
In some really small businesses, it may be that your only computer guy will have to come in. Paying overtime for those people is a little more of a burden on the small company.
Large companies have at least thought about the legal liability issue. [Small businesses] are more vulnerable in that respect and the situation is worse outside the U.S.
It is not that the resources aren't available, it is the time and money to take advantage of them aren't there or the knowledge of how [to prepare].
In fact they may be conservative. If that's the case, the IT recovery could come sooner and be stronger than we currently predicted.
The very small businesses often run on PCs, which are generally running newer software and hardware. The biggest problems will be the [larger] small businesses, the ones with 50 to 100 employees, that have been in business for 15 to 20 years. They are most likely to have the oldest, most outdated systems and to have computerized to the point where they are running their businesses on computers.
The respondents in this month's poll were quite bullish.
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