SMBs in Japan to Spend US$67.5 Billion on IT and Telecom This Year

Wednesday March 19 5:28 AM

IP communications usage is expected to grow at the rate of about 50% in 2008 over 2007. "Overall market size for IP-based communications is still embryonic in the Japan SMB space, but IP-based Centrex services are rapidly replacing conventional PBX," says Yuki Uehara, New York-based research analyst at AMI-partners. Moreover, wireless IP phones integrated with IP communications are becoming relatively popular among medium businesses (MBs, or companies with 100-999 employees). Small businesses (SBs, or companies with up to 99 employees) on the other hand, are prone to be attracted by Windows Mobile-based smart phones."

Widely adopted broadband connectivity has been encouraging SMBs to adopt cost-saving and efficient voice communication technology. Also, the fiber optics-based networking infrastructure available throughout Japan has enabled telecom carriers to offer scalable and quality services which are often bundled with WAN and/or VPN services at prices affordable for SMBs.

Also, there is a large pool of first-time adopters in the Japan SMB space due to lagging deployments of PBX, compared to their US counterparts. Japan SMBs have greater penetration of remote sites than their US counterparts, but many of those who have branches do not have internal communication systems. Major inhibitors are the cost of ownership. In-house implementation of PBX requires not only large overhead cost, but also internal expertise to maintain the system and additional investments to upgrade or to add functionalities. Moreover, today's pace of technological innovations shorten the overall lifecycle of the system. However, improving quality and flexibility of today's IP-Centrex services significantly reduces those inhibitors.

"SMBs are often uncertain about the bottom-line benefits of sophisticated IT products and services available in the market today," Ms. Uehara says. "However, it is relatively easier to justify the investment to IP communication services because the cost saving and efficiency are more tangible. Integration with mobile communication devices is likely to be the driver of IP communication services in the next few years."

Japan has lagged in offering "smart phones" due to the proliferation of already-smart-enough cellular phones featuring comparable functionalities as what-are-called smart phones in the rest of the world. However, focusing on business needs mobile communication carriers have recently released business phones--including Windows Mobile-based devices.

Most models are not only compatible with various business applications, but also come with advanced security controls such as remote lock and deleting data in the case of loss, wireless LAN connectivity and voice-over-IP (VoIP). "SBs that do not have legacy communication infrastructure are better positioned to take advantage of deploying such business phones," Ms. Uehara says.

About the Studies

AMI's 2007 Japan Small Business Market Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity Assessment and 2007 Japan Medium Business Market Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity Assessment studies highlight these and other major trends in the context of current/planned IT, Internet and communications usage and spending. Products and services covered include established and emerging hardware, software, applications and business process solutions. Based on AMI's annual surveys of SBs and MBs across Japan, the study tracks a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to budgets, purchase behaviors, decision influencers, channel preferences, outsourcing, service and support. Also covered are detailed firmographics and critically important technology attitudes and strategic planning priorities. This data points to key opportunities and messaging hot buttons for vendors and service providers seeking to match their offerings to SMB market requirements.

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 our Web site 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 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.

Contact:

AMI-Partners
Quoted Analyst:
Yuki Uehara, 212-944-5100 ext. 528
yuehara@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

Related Quotes

Finance Message Boards Most recent posts: Need urgently $50,000 for 2 months, will 121 Unemployment figures out tonight in USA. 31 Mr Would Have / Could Have Bruce.... 7 FIREFLY'S PUPPET SHOW 9 AUSTRALIA - ECONOMIC DISASTER LOOMS 3444 More Finance Boards

Email this story -   Printer friendly version

Next article:	China Architectural Engineering Announces New Projects Worth $50 Million in Dubai
Previous article:	Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation Announces Exercise of Over-Allotment Option for Convertible Senior Notes