SINGAPORE - (Business Wire) Small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to 999 employees) across key countries in ASEAN
—Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines
—are set to spend US$13.4 billion on IT this year, up 15% over 2007. This increase in spending is due to a boom in the economies of most of these countries and a rise in the number of SBs (small businesses, or companies with up to 99 employees).
This forecast comes from the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. Computing spending will account for just over 50% of total IT spending in ASEAN. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand will drive approximately 67% of the spending.
“PC-owning SBs will account for up to 78% of total IT spending among SMBs in 2008,” says Cindy Tan, Singapore-based Research Data Analyst at AMI-Partners. “A substantial number of SBs in ASEAN— especially those in the emerging markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam—are still in the First Wave of IT adoption. This First Wave involves building the basic IT infrastructure, such as deploying PCs, productivity suites and accounting software.”
Among the vertical sectors, the manufacturing industry is expected to be the largest contributor to IT spending and the one with the highest growth rate over last year, across ASEAN countries. “Retail is the most preferred channel among SBs in these countries,” Ms. Tan says. “Offering sales promotions, boosting marketing collaterals, outlining the benefits of PCs in automating business processes will entice SBs to buy more desktops and notebooks. According to an AMI study, sales promotions and automating PC business processes to increase work efficiency are the top two drivers for PC purchases among ASEAN SBs.”
As for MBs (medium businesses, or companies with 100 to 999 employees), about 40% of IT spending will be on computing hardware this year. The bulk of IT spending will continue to be on basic infrastructure. However, IT services, Internet and storage will make up another 42% of MB IT spending in the ASEAN countries in 2008.
“Improving Internet or networking bandwidth/connection speed, adding IT storage and deploying in-house or hosted backup and disaster recovery solutions are rated the top three most important IT priorities among ASEAN MBs this year,” Ms. Tan says. “With the demand for data sharing, data back-up and collaboration among employees, there is an increasing need for storage and data management software solutions among these companies. Moreover, IT security investments are essential for protection against electronic threats, data loss/corruption to ensure business continuity in the long run.”
The ASEAN region is on track to maintain a strong growth momentum this year. It will see robust domestic consumption, exports as well as strong private and public investments. Buoyed by positive sentiments, SMBs in ASEAN are planning to hire more employees this year. “Almost 50% of SBs said they plan to hire an average of two employees in 2008,” Ms. Tan says. “Over 60% of MBs plan to hire an average of 17 employees this year. This is directly related to SMBs overall expectation that they will experience an average 10% growth in sales revenue this year.”
About the Study
AMI’s ASEAN SMB Global Model Market Forecast combines primary and secondary research to develop overall SMB market sizing and forecasts. The SMB Global Model tracks a broad spectrum of products and services, including computing, internet and connectivity, networking, storage, security, software, telephony, and services and support. Additionally, it also provides firm counts as well as shipments and installed base data for an extensive list of categories. Telecom equipment and services cover the following: Telecom equipment covers traditional and IP PBX, wireless and mobile phones and pager equipment spend whereas telecom services covers hosted telephony including IP Centrex, local and IDD / long-distance telephony spend, mobile phone and pager service spending as well as WAN services spend which includes frame-relay, ATM, leased line, IP WAN and related services including any additional charges built in for QOS/SLA.
For more information about this study, AMI-Partners, or our global SMB research, call 212-944-5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com, or visit us at www.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 businesses (SMBs), 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. 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.
Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.
Quoted Analyst: Cindy Tan, (65) 6220 5535 ext 108
ctan@ami-partners.com
or
Media Relations: In US (New York):
Nancy Carty, 212-944-5100 ext 581
ncarty@ami-partners.com
or
In EU (London):
Claudia Jachtmann, (44) 208 987 2756
cjachtmann@ami-partners.com
or
In Asia Pacific (Singapore):
Diana Ng, (65) 6220 5535 ext 110
dng@ami-partners.com
or
In India (Kolkata):
Dipendra Mitra, (91) 33 4003 3093 ext 205
dmitra@ami-partners.com
