AMI-Partners: SMBs Are Facing the Same Challenges as Large Businesses Now

July 30, 2007; 07:01 AM
Most CEOs at small businesses (SBs, or companies with up to 99 staff) and IT managers at medium businesses (MBs, or companies with 100 to 999 staff) now face many of the same challenges that their counterparts at large enterprises encountered some years ago.

Apart from sheer information overload, these SMBs are finding that they need to be more productive and professional to compete better in today’s global economy. To do this they have to sort through a vast array of sources and information to make educated product and technology choices.

This is relevant because SMBs across the United States are expected to invest about US$241 billion in boosting their IT/telecom infrastructure and services – including hardware, software solutions and services– in 2007, up some 6.5% over 2006. This is a huge opportunity for IT and telecom vendors that specialize in offering solutions tailored for SMBs.

“The key reasons US SMBs purchase these solutions is to improve communication and collaboration with customers, partners and employees and to boost business performance and employee productivity,” says Sanjeev Aggarwal, AMI-Partners’ New York-based Vice President for SMB Infrastructure Solutions. “The priority and mix of information sources that influence purchase behavior in SMBs is changing significantly. Today’s information resources include a mix of traditional and Internet-based sources and media.”

Business-focused social networking is becoming more important in the SMB world since these firms usually lack an IT department. “Isolated SMB IT professionals often miss out on peer networking and the informal communication that happens at coffee machines in larger companies, which acts as an important source of education and technical perspective,” Mr. Aggarwal says. “However, the importance of social networking media as trusted sources is still low.”

AMI conducts an annual survey of IT purchase decision makers and influencers among SMBs in the United States. Key findings from the 2006-2007 US SMB surveys reveal the following about purchase decision making for IT and business communication systems and solutions:

• In the US, the CEO drives the IT and business communications solutions procurement decisions in almost 75% in SBs.
• In sharp contrast, the IT executive is the champion of IT and business communications procurement in MBs.
• Business-focused social networking is becoming more important in the SMB world since these firms usually lack an IT department.
• Technology buyers in SMBs prefer different information sources that drive their IT purchasing behavior.

About the Studies

This is the latest in a continuing series of studies published under the aegis of the recently launched AMI-Partners SMB Telecom/IP Communications and Managed Services practice. The new report provides actionable recommendations for vendors, service providers, channel partners, and SMBs.

For more information about this study, AMI-Partners, or our global SMB research, please call 212-944-5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com, or visit the AMI Web site at www.ami-partners.com. If you would like to arrange a webcast that will include a backgrounder on AMI’s SMB Telecom/IP Communications and Managed Services research practice and highlights from the new study, contact Julia Blelock at jblelock@ami-partners.com.

About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence — with a strong focus on global small and medium business (SMB) enterprises and extending into large enterprises and home-based businesses. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business strategy perspectives and “go-to-market” solutions. Led by Andy Bose, the firm has built a world-class management team with deep experience cutting across IT, telecommunications and business services sectors in established and emerging markets.

AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies over the last ten years. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets, its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 25 countries, and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis.