4 Ways As-a-Service Can Elevate Mid-Market Companies Mid-market organizations struggle to get the capital, talent and other resources they require for growth. The right tech operating model can help them get what they need to innovate.

Most modern mid-market organizations find themselves in an enviable position. Larger than small businesses, but more nimble than larger corporations, these businesses have room for expansion and market share capture.

Mid-market companies, which can include as many as several thousand employes, may expand into new markets, or even partner with other businesses to grow. And with the right strategic planning, mid-market businesses can not only innovate but accelerate digital transformation in ways that their smaller and larger cohorts can only dream of.

Even so, many mid-market organizations struggle with the same challenges that small and large businesses face. Consider the modern operating landscape.

Mid-market Orgs Grapple with Challenges

Complexity is ramping up among companies as their workforces have become more hybrid. New technologies emerge while applications and data are becoming more distributed. The threat landscapes have widened.

Such challenges are particularly problematic for mid-sized companies, many of which lack the capital to purchase critical IT resources or the talent to operate them, according to Enterprise Strategy Group research.¹

For instance, mid-market organizations face obstacles in attracting and retaining top talent, owing to their limited resources, as well as competition from better heeled, larger businesses. On the financial front, many struggle to secure the money to grow due to their lack of collateral.

At the same time, these businesses feel pressure to become more cost-effective and flexible. Therein lies the tension: IT leaders working for mid-market businesses must invest in and be enabled by technology, but the complexity and cost are often too high. As a result, their resource requirements are neglected. And often, the business pays the price.

Despite the challenges, a path forward exists: As-a-Service approaches that marry the simplicity and agility of public cloud services, including pay-per-use consumption, with the control of on-premises solutions. As-a-Service enables mid-market organizations to clear key hurdles while accelerating innovation through four avenues:

Cost Optimization. Capital outlays make some tech refreshes impossible for mid-market businesses—especially those operating in a sluggish economy. Moreover, IT spending is often not aligned to actual use, resulting in painful overprovisioning costs. A modern consumption model comprising pay-per-use solutions helps you match your IT spend with its actual use so that you can avoid the overprovisioning pitfall.

Productivity. As noted earlier, mid-market organizations have limited IT staff who are often focused on tasks that help keep the lights on, such as racking and stacking servers. This doesn't leave IT much time to partner with, let alone serve as trusted advisors, to the business. Managed device solutions offer relief, offering complete lifecycle management for PCs and laptops from setup to management to reporting. This enables time-crunched IT staff to focus on more high-value activities.

Digital resilience. Mid-market organizations are vulnerable to security threats that can disrupt their operations. And as with most businesses, they can't sustain unplanned downtime. Managed solutions help ensure that all your devices are up-to-date and provide device encryption, event detection and antivirus capabilities. SaaS backup rounds out the protection with data backup, disaster recovery and long-term data retention for SaaS applications, endpoint devices and hybrid workloads.

Business acceleration. Innovation isn't just for large enterprises. As mid-market organizations look to accelerate growth, they need assurances the IT decisions they make today won't hamstring them tomorrow. They require nimble solutions that can help them quickly capture new business opportunities. As-a-Service provides IT infrastructure that helps businesses flex with their appetite for growth, providing on-demand scaling that brings a cloud experience to their on-premises locations.

Standing Out From the Middle of the Pack

Mid-market organizations play an important role in the economy, creating jobs, generating revenue and contributing to innovation. But to thrive they must have a clear growth strategy, invest in infrastructure and technology and remain agile to adapt to changing market conditions.

And while these companies face challenges that threaten to stymie growth, solutions exist to provide them much needed support.

The Dell APEX portfolio of as-a-Service solutions provides hardware and services so that IT teams can focus on delivering better business outcomes rather than managing infrastructure. Organizations that embraced the as-a-Service approach reduced their three-year operations cost by 39%, while IT infrastructure teams were up to 38% more efficient, according to IDC research.

As you craft a technology strategy designed to unleash innovation, Dell APEX will help your business retain talent and grow revenue, enabling you to better compete and woo new customers—rather than feel lost in the middle of the corporate pack.

Learn more about our portfolio of cloud experiences delivering simplicity, agility and control as-a-Service: Dell Technologies APEX.

^1. Analyzing the Economic Benefits of Dell APEX Solutions for Multiple Organizational Sizes and Types, Enterprise Strategy Group, August 2023.
^2. The Business Value of Dell Technologies APEX Multicloud and As-a-Service Solutions, IDC, August 2023.