The stock market is inching its way back up, unemployment is holding steady and in some locations even declining and housing prices are at their highest in a year. These small improvements may mean we are seeing the beginnings of an economic recovery. But as a slow recovery begins it is becoming clear the emerging economy will not be the same as we became accustomed to before the recession and businesses will not be run as they were prior to the economic collapse in late 2008. Budgets will remain small and despite growth, businesses will continue to be wary of investing in new solutions causing them to scrutinize the cost and benefit of new products. Because of this change, business to business vendors, especially technology vendors will need to shift the business model from providing products to providing solutions and focusing on customer needs rather than product capabilities. Vendors that are able to provide low cost or even free business solutions like Vistaprint, will be better positioned to survive and thrive in this new economy.

At the heart of this change is the rise of small and medium businesses (SMBs) as the backbone of the world economy. In the United States approximately 99% of all businesses can be classified as a small or medium sized business and the success of these businesses will help drive the economic recovery. Unfortunately, due to their size as well as the impact the recession had on these organizations, many SMBs will not have the resources to buy the products necessary for running a successful organization; inevitably hampering growth. As a result, when looking for essential business products these businesses will turn away from the traditional products used by larger organizations and will look to alternative products and solutions - many of which will be free.

Already we see businesses move away from purchasing critical tools like word processing technologies and moving towards using free versions that are just as robust. Visionary vendors, like Google or Vistaprint, that recognize this impending shift before it becomes the new standard will stand ahead of other vendors. These companies provide essential functions, like word processing tools, business cards, website design and other essential business products for free, and then sell additional software and hardware and services that small and medium sized businesses need.

In addition to offering essential business functions for free, the paradigm shift will also include a shift in focus for technology vendors. Instead of focusing on what their technologies can do; vendors will need to focus on meeting the exact needs of each individual customer. This sort of mass customization will require vendors to look at each potential customer as an individual instead of as one of many in a vertical or industry. Because many vendors will be competing for sales with the same SMBs, these small and medium sized businesses will have the power to demand the ability to customize solutions to fit their exact and unique needs. These companies will also desire the ability to have solutions on-demand or hosted and the ability to change their configurations quickly based on their ever evolving needs. Vendors who are set up to provide this level of flexibility will be better suited to survive in the new competitor landscape.

Like all major shifts in business this one will not happen seamlessly. There will be large vendors that will resist and due to their size and name recognition they will not suffer too much. However, this does not mean they should ignore the trend. As more and more small to medium sized businesses move towards selecting free essential technologies from vendors that embraced or even pioneered the shift like Vistaprint, vendors who resist the change will begin to see their products passed over for lesser known solutions that are just as effective and in some cases even more effective. In this new business model, name recognition alone will not allow a company to thrive; it will require an understanding of the needs of SMBs and the flexibility to meet those needs.

Jan Hichert is Chief Executive Officer of Astaro Corporation. Jan has led Astaro since the company was founded in early 2000. Before Astaro, Jan consulted with software vendors and Internet service providers on IT security and open source business models. Jan studied business at the University of St. Gallen and computer science at the Technical University of Karlsruhe before becoming an entrepreneur.