The survey of more than 400 SMBs across the United States finds that nearly 30% of them plan to implement SaaS solutions in 2010 to lower costs and maintain their competitive edge. That's up from 22% and 14% respectively in the two prior years.

Thirty percent of SMBs say they intend to implement managed services solutions in 2010. Since 42% of SMBs do not have a formal IT department, relying instead on workers handling IT needs on a part-time basis, the managed services model is ideally suited to fill this skills gap.

The CompTIA study also indicates SMBs are placing increasing importance on technology solutions that drive revenues, produce immediate results to the bottom line and have a direct, positive impact on the customer’s experience. This is reflected in their growing adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and other such solutions in 2009.

"Between 70% and 80% of the SMBs we surveyed consider the usage of ERP, CRM and online e-commerce capabilities as strategic to their business," said Tim Herbert, vice president, research, CompTIA. "IT solutions that are tied to instant return on investment in business communication and customer outreach efforts have the highest likelihood of adoption."