AMI-Partners: SMBs in ASEAN to Spend US$12.5B on IT in 2007

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to 999 employees) are set to invest a whopping US$12.5 billion this year to strengthen their IT infrastructure across key countries in Asean – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam. This amount is up 17% over last year’s IT infrastructure spend of US$10.7 billion across Asean economies, according to the latest study by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

“SMBs in the manufacturing sector in these countries are barely equipped with PCs and printers, and quite a few don’t even have this basic IT infrastructure”

For SMBs across ASEAN, the top three priorities for IT spending this year will be computing, Internet, and IT services. “The top three countries which are leading in IT spending in ASEAN’s SMB space are Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore – in that order,” says Balaji Sreedhar, Singapore-based Research Analyst at AMI-Partners. “These countries together contribute to over 66% of the SMB IT spend in ASEAN. Indonesia’s IT spending is set to grow 19% this year over last year, Malaysia will see IT spend rise 14%, and Singapore will go up 8%. The bulk of the IT spending for SMBs in Indonesia will be on computing, Internet, security, and storage. In Malaysia and Singapore the bulk of the spending will be on computing, Internet and IT services.”

SBs (small businesses, or companies with under 99 employees) will account for up to two thirds of ASEAN’s total IT spend. SBs will focus the bulk of investments on computing, which is essentially PCs, servers and printing. “Spending on security, storage and networking solutions is not big, since SBs in ASEAN are just setting up their IT infrastructure and their first priority is to beef up on basic computing needs,” Mr. Sreedhar says. “The ASEAN market is poised for some exciting times ahead and IT vendors should take notice of this market and should start marketing solutions tailored for specific economies across ASEAN.”

As for the rest of ASEAN, Thailand will see IT spend among SMBs grow at nearly 17%, while the Philippines will see IT investments grow at a faster 18% this year. The top spot will be Vietnam, which will see IT spending grow at a scorching 24% over last year. “SMBs in Singapore are more mature than their counterparts in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand, which is also reflected in Singapore’s muted spending growth,” Mr. Sreedhar says. “SMBs in Singapore are spending in incremental amounts to reinforce their IT infrastructure, whereas in countries like Thailand and Indonesia, a lot of SMBs are just starting to invest on IT Infrastructure. This accounts for the high rate of growth in IT spending in the two countries.”

Among vertical sectors that are contributing to the IT spend across ASEAN are manufacturing, professional services (which includes financial planning, billing and recordkeeping, etc.) and retail. Manufacturing (both discrete and process) is the leading vertical in IT spending. Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam contribute a major portion to the pool of manufacturing SMBs. “SMBs in the manufacturing sector in these countries are barely equipped with PCs and printers, and quite a few don’t even have this basic IT infrastructure,” Mr. Sreedhar says. “However, with the economy being on the upswing in these countries, SMBs in the manufacturing vertical are flourishing. This, in turn, is leading them to invest more in IT infrastructure.”

About the Studies

Yearly AMI investigates 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 ASEAN, the studies track 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. These data point 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, please call 212-944-5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com, or visit the AMI 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.