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IDC Survey: SMB-Focused Partners in EMEA — Business Models, Customer Demand, and Implications for Partner Strategy

Stuart Wilson, Andreas Storz — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey examines SMB-focused partners in EMEA and the SMB customers they serve, using data from IDC’s 2025 EMEA Partner Survey and 2026 Worldwide SMB Survey. It explores how SMB-focused partners build and monetize multimodel, services-led business models within vendor-driven ecosystems.

The analysis connects partner behavior to SMB customer priorities around growth, efficiency, and cost control, and examines how these shape demand for technology and services. Taking an ecosystem view, the report highlights how vendor programs, platforms, and engagement models directly influence how SMB-focused partners go to market and deliver value.

Salesforce Connections 2026: Short-Term ROI on Marketing AI to Drive Long-Term Transformation

Gerry Murray, Heather Hershey, Douglas Hayward, Roger Beharry Lall, Tapan Patel — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective summarizes Salesforce Connections 2026 and its implications for CMOs and marketing technology buyers. The document covers Salesforce's Agentforce Marketing and Commerce announcements, including the pipeline generation agents Piper and Hunter, the Contentful acquisition, the Agentforce Marketing Goals Agent, and Headless 360 MCP campaign management capabilities.

"The road to scaling agentic marketing is ultimately an organizational, process, and technological transformation proposition, each step of which will have to pay its way," says Gerry Murray, research director, Enterprise Marketing Apps and Agents, IDC. "By forming its go-to-market strategy on this principle, Salesforce aligns itself with CMO agendas and CFO requirements for funding enterprise-scale investments, which expands account TAM and accelerates Salesforce's ability to capture share of the agentic infrastructure spend."

Japan IT Spending Forecast by Vertical Segment, Company Employee Size, Company Revenue, and Region, 2026–2030

Hitoshi Ichimura, Ko Shikita — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study presents the Japan IT market actual IT spending in 2024 and 2025, and the IT spending forecast from 2026 to 2030 by industry segment, company size, and annual turnover. This study also analyzes IT spending by dividing the industries into 21 categories, company size and product segments into five categories, and annual turnover into four categories; and discusses IT spending trends observed in each industry segment.

Despite the increasing uncertainty in the Japan economy, many Japanese companies are making full-scale efforts toward digitalization and digital business. In particular, large and medium-sized enterprises are advancing existing system renewals and infrastructure modernization projects, and therefore, IT spending is forecast to expand steadily. On the other hand, while small and medium-sized enterprises have needs for digitalization, their initiatives remain limited due to factors such as deteriorating business performance or a shortage of personnel with expertise in digitalization, which has also led to stagnation in IT spending growth rates. "IDC believes that IT suppliers' further focus on supporting the digitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises, centered on AI utilization, will contribute to stable growth in the IT business going forward," says Hitoshi Ichimura, senior research manager, Software, Services, and IT Spending at IDC Japan.

This is the English translation of the Japanese document (IDC #JPJ53503626).

IDC Survey Spotlight: Where Are SMBs Prioritizing Their Security Investments?

Yih Khai Wong — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight summarizes findings from IDC’s Asia/Pacific Security Survey, highlighting IT investment priorities for SMBs in Asia/Pacific.

This document draws on data from the Asia/Pacific Security Survey, which asked 141 SMB organizations in the region the following question: In the next 12–24 months, which areas will be the top priorities for modernizing your organization’s security operations?

Market Forecast: Europe Small and Medium-Sized Business Telecom Services Forecast, 2026-2030

Daniela Rao — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation provides the five-year forecast for the European small and medium-sized business (SMB) telecom services market for 2025 to 2030. It focuses on the evolution of spending on fixed and mobile telecom services for the SMB (1–249 employees) market segments.

“The SMB telecom services market will be driven by the intensive use of mobile and fixed connectivity, demonstrating almost flat end-user total spending and declining ARPU. The SMB segment will remain the main challenging arena in which European telcos are redesigning their strategies to retain these customers, achieve new revenue, and gain capital efficiencies,” said Daniela Rao, senior research and consulting director, European Telecom at IDC.

Micro-SMB AI Opportunity for Telcos in Asia/Pacific: What to sell, What to Avoid, and how to Prioritize

Nikhil Batra — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The SMB conversation for telcos in Asia/Pacific has been traditionally skewed toward companies with 50–250 employees: AI copilots, Microsoft Office 365 resell, software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), managed security, and other SaaS subscriptions. However, the micro-SMB segment (under 30 employees) behaves differently enough that most of those offerings miss. This micro-SMB tier represents a very large, unaddressed AI opportunity for telcos in the region.

This presentation discusses how micro-SMBs view AI solutions, their requirements of such solutions, and how telecom SPs can play in this space.

“There is a significant opportunity for SPs across Asia/Pacific to uplift micro-SMB revenue and increase attach rates through a new breed of AI-augmented solutions, such as AI voice receptionist. However, this segment will not respond to scaled down versions of larger SMB products,” says Nikhil Batra, senior research director, telecom, IDC Asia/Pacific. “For micro-SMBs, telcos need an outcome-led positioning that solves a simple business problem, such as fewer missed calls, more after hours bookings, or more leads. For telcos, this means identifying the right solutions, pricing them well in logical bundles, and taking them to market through the right channels,” he adds.

IDC Survey: Worldwide SMB AI Platform Spending: Regional Dynamics, Growth Opportunities, and Strategic Priorities, 2024–2029

Supriya Deka, Katie Evans — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey examines how small and midsize businesses (SMBs) worldwide are spending on AI platforms through 2029. It maps regional spending dynamics across the Americas, Europe, and Asia/Pacific regions, identifies growth opportunities driving adoption, and surfaces the strategic priorities shaping vendor selection. The findings provide technology suppliers with the evidence they need to navigate their next steps to better serve the SMB segment.

Adobe Posts Record 2Q26 Results: AI-First ARR Triples

Gerry Murray, Roger Beharry Lall, Douglas Hayward — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Adobe reported record FY 2Q26 results on June 11, 2026, with revenue of $6.62 billion, growing 13% year over year, or 11% in constant currency. The company raised its FY26 total revenue and non-GAAP EPS targets and reported that AI-first ARR tripled year over year and exceeded $500 million. Total Adobe ARR exiting the quarter was $27.10 billion, including approximately $480 million from Semrush.

Embedded Lending as a Strategic Imperative: How Financial Applications Can Navigate the SMB Credit Gap

Jordan Steele — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective examines the embedded lending opportunity, the competitive dynamics shaping the market, the innovation models suppliers are deploying, and the regulatory and risk considerations that technology vendors must address. Embedded lending is a strategic imperative for financial application vendors aiming to close the persistent SMB credit gap left by traditional banks. By leveraging real-time transactional data within financial workflows, vendors can unlock new credit access, differentiate through targeted underserved segments, and create recurring revenue streams. Success requires a proactive approach to data governance, regulatory compliance, and platform integration. As competition intensifies from fintechs and payroll platforms, vendors that invest early in data assets, compliance infrastructure, and seamless product integration will secure a durable competitive advantage and capture unmet SMB credit demand.

“The SMB credit gap has always been a data and distribution problem more than a risk problem. Financial applications sit on both, which is why embedded lending will shift meaningful share away from traditional bank channels faster than most incumbents are prepared for,” says Jordan Steele, research manager for Worldwide Financial Applications Support at IDC.

Fixed Access Over Mobile in Western Europe: Trends and Key Telco Offerings

Daniela Rao — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation provides an overview of the Western Europe fixed wireless access over mobile market trends and the main telcos’ offerings.

The presentation summarizes the main market dimensions and trends as well as provides an overview of fixed wireless access over mobile offerings launched by the main European telcos. It also contains key recommendations for telco providers in this market.