AMI-Partners: Unified Communications Trickles into the US SMB Market

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are facing numerous challenges that are forcing them to become more flexible in order to compete in an increasingly global economy. This demands increased productivity from employees and optimized operational efficiency from SMBs to enable short response times and quick information-driven decision making. While SMBs are yet to fully comprehend the notion of unified communications (UC), AMI-Partners’ tracking of this space reveals US SMBs have started to adopt various facets of UC in a best-of-breed, piecemeal manner.

“Whether using Skype on their smartphones, or installing in-house IP-PBXs or using web conferencing services, SMBs are clearly signaling their desire to utilize all available communications and collaboration solutions”

“Whether using Skype on their smartphones, or installing in-house IP-PBXs or using web conferencing services, SMBs are clearly signaling their desire to utilize all available communications and collaboration solutions,” says Sanjeev Aggarwal, Vice President at AMI-Partners. “However, SMBs are not familiar with the notion of unified communications, nor are they aware of the various platforms being cobbled together through acquisitions in the IT space,” adds Mr. Aggarwal. “What SMBs need and are willing to pay for today, are easy to use point solutions that can help them enhance their business communications and collaboration at little cost and without requiring heavy IT support.”

This recently released AMI report, titled, “Driving Unified Communications and Collaboration Adoption in the SMB Market – The Business-Focused Web2.0 Market Dynamics, Challenges and Solutions“ analyses the SMB end-user market dynamics, drivers and inhibitors around unified communications technologies. Additionally, the report examines various vendor platforms, marketing and channel partner considerations that are affecting SMB adoption of this emerging growth area. Some of the key findings from this report are:

SMBs are evenly divided between the ideas of a best-of-breed solution versus a single integrated strategic solution provider. Clearly, there is room for both, which suggests inter-operability among various solutions as a must-have capability.
Channel partners need to evolve into business consultants to be able to effectively sell UC solutions.
Low cost/free tools such as Skype are making a strong impact, given the convenience and mobility enhancements inherent in this service – over 350,000 SMBs in the US are using Skype for business communications.
The biggest hurdle to the success of unified communications has been the lack of an integration platform backed by a significant market leadership vendor to tackle the challenge of linking disparate channels of communications.
Cisco, Microsoft and possibly Google are the leading contenders for an integrated UC platform in the SMB market, but still have a lot of work ahead of them

About the Study

Driving Unified Communications and Collaboration Adoption in the SMB Market – The Business-Focused Web2.0 Market Dynamics, Challenges and Solutions 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 AMI-Partners and the SMB Telecom/IP Communications and Managed IT Infrastructure Service

AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence—focusing on global small and medium business (SMB) enterprises. AMI has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT and communications companies over the last ten years. The firm is well known for its IT/communications 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.

AMI’s Telecom/IP Communications and Managed IT Infrastructure practice is a powerful and actionable blend of in-depth SMB demand tracking/analysis, supply-side and channel partner assessments, and go-to-market segmentation strategy and predictive analytics. It equips vendors with the tools needed to successfully navigate the challenges and requirements of the dynamic SMB marketplace.