Microsoft announced the results of a global study looking at how small businesses use and manage their IT, as well as their attitudes toward hosted IT services.

The research highlighted that many small businesses struggle to compete with big businesses and are unsure of how to get access to higher quality IT services that could help them. In light of the current global credit crunch, small businesses are likely to be looking for ways to reduce IT spending and risks associated with IT, which will detract from other business priorities and subscription IT services may provide an answer.

Local findings in the U.S. included:

· 78 percent of respondents think that bigger businesses gain an advantage from having more dedicated and sophisticated IT resources
· The U.S. and France are the countries where small businesses are most likely to not have any IT, both at 9 percent
· When asked what interests them in hosted services, 48 percent of respondents said that it would allow them to focus more on their core business