Nearly half UK SMEs are using smartphones to conduct business and banking related activity, a trend which could provide the kick-start the economy needs.

The 100th Quarterly Survey of Small Business in Britain, conducted by The Open University Business School, Barclays and accountancy organisation ACCA, found that 48 percent of UK SMEs are currently using m-banking apps and a further 9 percent are planning to adopt the technology next year.

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Steve Cooper, managing director of Barclays Business claims businesses are motivated by the ease and decreasing costs of conducting payments via mobile phones.

“We’ve reached a point where smartphones are running many of the applications that once needed a decently powered laptop,” said Cooper.

“Businesses can log-on, make payments, send through an invoice, do their word-processing and catch up on emails while standing at a patisserie in Lille. With around half of businesses already accepting or making payments over the internet, smartphone use looks set to accelerate the trend towards a cashless society.”

The study found entrepreneurial firms are driving the surge in smartphone usage, with 65 percent regularly logging into the internet for business purposes from their handsets.

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“These quarterly surveys over recent years have seen a strong trend towards the increased use of new ICT and online applications by growth-minded entrepreneurial firms,” said Professor Colin Gray from The Open University Business School.

“Britain needs to kick-start and sustain our economy on a longer term basis and technology could provide the answer.”