Today, the Decision Making Unit (DMU) within SMBs is much bigger, much more diverse, much more difficult to inform, and can be much slower to take action. Business decision makers (BDMs) are an intrinsic force within DMUs in most SMBs, and are the primary decision makers in some high-growth areas.

These BDMs have different objectives for technology, different perspectives on adoption drivers and impediments, and tend to be influenced by different information sources. The resulting diffusion in responsibility/authority and information channels has created an environment where buyers and sellers struggle to develop the cohesion needed to promote or embrace new IT/business capabilities within existing IT and business process structures. To help shed light on this issue, Techaisle conducted a unique survey of SMBs to understand the current state and implications of distributed IT influence and authority.