How We Define 'Midmarket' Businesses for IT Leaders

MES Computing is dedicated to all things related to IT decision-makers at midmarket organizations. What exactly is the ‘midmarket?’ Here’s our perspective.

The Channel Company recently launched MESComputing.com - an addition to our Midsize Enterprise Services (MES) platform - a resource offering events, the latest news, analysis, research and networking opportunities to midmarket IT decision-makers.

You might be wondering though: what exactly does "midmarket" mean? We have some criteria that defines a midmarket business:

- Midmarket organizations have between 100-2,500 total supported end users.

- They have IT departments with 5-50 employees.

- They have an annual revenue range between $50 million and $2 billion.

- They have an active IT budget of $750,000-plus.

Does an organization need to check all the above boxes to qualify as midmarket? No. But if you are running an IT department in a business that meets at least three out of the four criteria, you are in a midmarket business.

As of 2023, there were about 200,000 to 230,000 midmarket businesses in the private sector, employing approximately 48 million people, according to the "Year-End 2023 Middle Market Indicator" report by the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM). Midmarket businesses make up one-third of the nation's GDP and employment, according to NCMM.

"[Midmarket] businesses are truly drivers of the U.S economy," Doug Farren, managing director at the NCMM, told MES Computing, told MES Computing.

Still, the midmarket is a business segment that often gets overlooked by vendors and media.

"A lot of the attention is on startups and entrepreneurs and big companies. The midmarket tends to get ignored … We started our report in 2012 to start tracking how these companies are doing, but also what they are thinking and feeling. Our data supports the fact that these companies are performing very well but have concerns about inflation, and uncertainty around the macroeconomic environment," Farren said.

Yet many midsize businesses are thriving and they are also "super interested in technology," according to Farren. However, some IT decision-makers (CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, IT Directors … etc.) say they still face a host of technology challenges.

MES Computing polled over 100 IT leaders, and they said among their current most pressing concerns were:

- Security infrastructure

- Spending on IT staff salaries

- Investment in/updating network services to support a remote workforce

- Cloud computing costs

- Data management

The MES platform was launched to help midmarket IT leaders navigate those challenges and to provide up-to-date, actionable information. If you are an IT leader in the midmarket check out MESComputing.com, our MES events and join the MES IT Leadership Network.