AMI: 74% of small businesses expect revenues to increase, IT spending up 11%

SBs may be overly optimistic about the future, as they have expanded their workforce by 5% over the past year and have increased IT spending by 11% over the same time. Nonetheless, the numbers are favorable for small businesses, as AMI finds that 84% of SBs now have Internet access, 43% have Web sites and 53% have high-speed Net access. AMI reports that the percentage of SBs with true CRM applications rose by 17.9% between 2002 and 2003. Forrester Research finds that at least 26% of small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) in North America have purchased CRM software this year.