13/05/2010

By Lea Pachta

As the results of the general election are declared, salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, has revealed that supporting small enterprise to help drive the UK's economic recovery was among the hottest business topics on Debate2010, the UK's first real-time, online discussion forum run for the General Election.

Attention focused on what the next Government should do 'to boost investment in the thousands of small businesses that need help during these tough times so they can flourish in the future and create more jobs.' Among the most popular and hotly debated ideas were 'enourage innovators', supported by 100% of respondents, 'reduce regulation', supported by 95.7% and 'encourage all social and economic groups to develop skills needed for small business', supported by 92.9%.

Debate2010 was launched in March by salesforce.com in conjunction with Telegraph Media Group, publishers of The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, Telegraph.co.uk and The Telegraph weekly world edition.

"A common theme of many of the business discussions was the great value that SMEs deliver for the economy as a whole," says Dr Steve Garnett, chairman EMEA, salesforce.com. 

"One posting even stated that 'they are the cradles of entrepreneurial endeavour, create jobs and help to knit together our communities.'

"SMEs are important to the UK economy and the level of investment they receive can be critical to their ongoing success," adds Garnett. 

"However, SMEs' choice of technology platform is just as important - in controlling costs; in getting to market quickly and in having the freedom to innovate and drive business advantage. By opting for cloud computing, they can reduce upfront capital expense, cut maintenance costs, enhance operational effectiveness and agility and ultimately achieve competitive edge."