SMBs Feeling the Pain from Rising Energy Costs

SMBs continuously face a myriad of financial issues. Costs are rising in all directions, in quality healthcare and compensation for employees, office rental costs and equipment investments. However, none of the above-mentioned costs are hitting SMBs quite as hard as rising energy costs.

CNN Money reported the results of an IBM global survey of nearly 1400 small and midsized businesses, and found that energy costs have faced the "biggest cost increase" over the past two years. The interviewees expressed concern over these cost increases, for both financial and environmental reasons.

The bad news is that US businesses were less likely than their foreign counterparts to know how much their IT systems contributed to their overall costs, a mistake as IT equipment is a major power suck and is ripe for savings.

The good news however is that the majority of SMBs have begun to make at least basic changes in IT, such as installing energy efficient lighting and turning off equipment when not in use. The study indicated that 55% of SMBs are currently taking active steps toward reducing the energy consumption of their information technology, a wise move as recent research from IDC estimates that for very dollar spent on IT, 50 cents is spent on related energy costs. By taking advantage of energy efficient measures and technologies SMBs can mitigate these rising energy costs and focus their efforts on more important issues.

Click here to learn more about IBM's global SMB survey.