Re-Evaluating SMEs IT Readiness in the Age of the Cloud

Cloud-based services present the smaller firm with the opportunity to reassess the organisational resources devoted to complex software and hardware management. In this paper, the technology, knowledge and relational characteristics associated with software as a service are explored from the point of view of the small firm, as a user of this service. The focus is not on the adoption decision per se but on the pre-conditions influencing the adoption and implementation of IT by firms. Here, IT Readiness is examined as an appropriate conceptual framework to understand these pre-conditions in small firms and consider how they might be affected by a move to software as a service. Consequently, the paper argues for an augmented IT Readiness framework that incorporates features associated with cloud-based services and develops an augmented IT Readiness framework that explicitly includes relational elements missing from earlier conceptions.