The aim of this paper is to determine the contribution of SMEs in the national economy and particularly in the city of Cuenca based on the revision of literature about the importance of these enterprises worldwide in order to finally establish the classification used in the data analysis. Due to its nature, the research is descriptive and is based on official information obtained from the last National Economic Census where it is possible to identify and analyse the sectors and the economic activities, according to the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), that have a greater contribution in the economy. The results obtained explain the importance of the participation of SMEs in the country’s economy and especially in the city of Cuenca regarding the number of businesses and employment, mainly in commerce and the manufacturing industry. However, the results show that wealth is generating in a few large companies, thus demonstrating the unfair nature of the national economy, which is more evident in the city of Cuenca.

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The Importance of Small and Medium Enterprises in the City of Cuenca-Ecuador and Their Contribution to the Creation of Employment

The increase of contemporary technologies such as cloud-based services has attracted various institutions, especially in developing countries. Many businesses have started to show interest in migrating to the cloud to expand their businesses, particularly in urban areas. However, it has become challenging for rural-based Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to integrate themselves with ICT innovations such as cloud services as they are facing various challenges like poor development of ICT infrastructure. It is these difficulties that are facing SMEs located in rural areas that are at the core of this study, whose aim is to assess the challenges that rural-based SMEs are facing on the implementation of cloud services. A literature review from the previous studies was used to identify these challenges, which were later transformed into variables that ended up being tested in this paper. These variables include independent variables such as Security, Compatibility, Perceived usefulness, Perceived ease of use, and dependent variable, which are cloud services. A Likert-scale questionnaire-based survey of small business employees was conducted from a small town called Elliotdale, Eastern Cape, South Africa, to assess whether the challenges mentioned above, according to them, have an impact on the implementation of cloud services by SMEs. The data were analyzed to test the reliability and validity of the data-gathering instrument(questionnaires) and inferential statistics such as correlations between independent and dependent constructs, and Regression (predictor). The results indicate that the participants agreed that the challenges mentioned above, such as Security, Compatibility, Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, have a significant impact on the implementation of cloud services by rural-based SMEs.

Assessing the challenges that are confronted rural-based SMEs on the implementation of cloud services

A adocao de computacao em nuvem nao e um processo simples, demandando maturidade em gestao e governanca de tecnologia da informacao. Esta pesquisa objetivou apresentar um modelo de avaliacao de capacidade baseado nos criterios que devem ser considerados quando uma organizacao da administracao publica federal decide contratar a modalidade de servico da computacao em nuvem conhecida como software como servico. A metodologia contemplou uma pesquisa bibliografica sobre computacao em nuvem, seguida por uma analise de conteudo, um grupo focal para avaliacao do modelo e, finalmente, uma aplicacao em cinco orgaos publicos, que constatou o despreparo para o consumo de software como servico. O desempenho foi insuficiente nos dominios da tecnologia e infraestrutura, razoavel em seguranca da informacao, e apenas suficiente nos dominios da estrategia organizacional e software. O modelo proposto pode auxiliar os gestores publicos na deteccao de areas que devem ser melhoradas para mitigacao dos riscos.

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Modelo de avaliação da capacidade das organizações da administração pública federal para a adoção de software as a service (SaaS) público

Tropical rainforests are the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Although many theories have been proposed to explain their richness we currently know little about their relative importance. This diversity is threatened by anthropogenic disturbances such as fragmentation and forest degradation. In this study we compared epiphytic plant diversity patterns in lowland and subandean forests. More epiphytic diversity was found in subandean (PNN Cueva de los Guacharos) compared to lowland forest (Palmari Reserve). In addition a higher abundance of epiphytes was found in conserved forest. Tree host diversity was higher in lowland forests than in subandean forests, so we can reject the possibility that differences between the patterns of epiphytic diversity are caused by regional effects of plant diversity. Our results suggest that humidity seems to be the most important environmental filter explaining epiphyte diversity.

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Patrones de diversidad de epífitas en bosques de tierras bajas y subandinos

This document is the result of a descriptive research on and analysis of hierarchical conglomerates. Its purpose is to investigate the current state of Cloud Computing (CC) use in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the city of Latacunga, Ecuador. The construction of the instrument was based on the planning, application, analysis and validation of a questionnaire using Kuder Richarson 20 (KR20), which resulted in 0.81. The SPSS and Nvivo software were used with the participation of 43 SMEs from productive sectors, such as agriculture, manufacturing, commerce and service. The questionnaire was made up of 17 questions, grouped in two parts for the Department of Information Technology (IT) and administrative personnel. The results show that 65.1% know about CC, however, a low applicability is evident. A set of more relevant questions determines the decision making of the use of Cloud Computing in SMEs.

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Mauricio Quisimalin-Santamaría

Papers

Current Status of the Use of Cloud Computing in SMEs in the City of Latacunga, Ecuador