The Small Business Technology Assessment Tool is a free online tool that uses CDW's Business Rearview Mirror survey, published Aug. 20, 2007, as a benchmark against which small businesses can gauge their progress, growth and profitability compared with established midsize businesses.

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Lauren McCadney, senior segment manager for small business at CDW, said the company works with lots of small business customers every day who lack a like-minded colleague that can provide feedback on strategy. "This is a great opportunity to do course correction—SMBs can ask questions of their peers and get feedback instead of trying to sort it all out by themselves," she said.

The Business Rearview Mirror survey identified top challenges and issues that respondents overcame in the growth from small businesses to midsize companies and also gathered information about business strategies, attitudes and experiences managing IT.

The survey data, observations and lessons learned by growing small businesses can be critical to the success of newer, less-established businesses, helping them to avoid many pitfalls, said Mark Gambill, vice president of marketing for CDW, in a statement.

"We know that small-business owners are interested in learning from other businesses through surveys, success stories and benchmarking," Gambill said. "The tool enables business owners and their IT staff to understand how they might improve their competitiveness and growth."

The Small Business Technology Assessment Tool is available through CDW's Conduit@CDW Web site. The Conduit@CDW site, which was launched in June, is a social networking site for CDW SMB customers to share information, contacts and business, as well as technical tips and support, company officials said.