AMI-Partners' Study Shows China Medium Businesses Spent over US$6 Billion on ICT Products and Services in 2004, Driven by Robust Hardware Upgrades and Investment in IT Services.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- IT Ventures for 2005 Will Center on Fostering Computing Platforms, Mobility, Branch-Office Connectivity and Securing the Enterprise -- Embracing Solutions from Lenovo, Dell, HP, Great Wall, Intel and Cisco A new AMI-Partners study, 2004-2005 China Medium Business Market Overview and Topline Assessment, reveals that China medium businesses (MBs) increased IT and telecom spending in 2004, registering more than US$6.1 billion. Greater than half of the IT-related investments were dedicated to IT services, including customized software See custom software. , consulting, and support -- while over 20% was spent on computing, including clients, servers and imaging products. As China MBs maintain their infrastructure build-out and migrate to more complex systems, demand for IT services will continue to surge. The above findings were released today by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc., a leading consulting firm Noun 1. consulting firm - a firm of experts providing professional advice to an organization for a fee consulting company business firm, firm, house - the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments; "he worked for a that specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services market intelligence -- with a strong focus on global small and medium business (SMB (1) (Small to Medium-sized Business) Also called "SME" (small to medium-sized enterprise), it refers to companies that are larger than the small office/home office (SOHO), but not huge. ) enterprises. AMI-Partners conducts the industry's most comprehensive annual tracking surveys of SMBs in more than 20 countries, including North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. (U.S. and Canada); Europe (U.K., France, Germany, Czech Republic Czech Republic, Czech Česká Republika (2005 est. pop. 10,241,000), republic, 29,677 sq mi (78,864 sq km), central Europe. It is bordered by Slovakia on the east, Austria on the south, Germany on the west, and Poland on the north. , Poland and Russia); Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. , India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand); and Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. (Mexico and Brazil). Growing PC Density and Other Hardware Upgrades PC investment by China MBs in 2004 resulted in shipments exceeding 300,000 units. The PC-to-employee ratio shows significant room for market expansion. The industry is consolidating, with local giant Lenovo acquiring IBM's PC operations. Leading server brands installed include HP, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and Lenovo. Among medium businesses planning to purchase new servers in the next 12 months, brands being considered are HP, IBM, Dell, Lenovo and Great Wall. Additional highlights from the AMI study, which included face-to-face in-depth interviews with MBs across Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in China China is a geographical area encompassing multiple territories, under two states. You may be looking for:
--More than a third of China MBs plan to purchase a PC in the next 12 months. --Current IT penetration findings point to approximately every three to four employees sharing a PC, every three PCs sharing a printer, and every 20 PCs and seven printers sharing one server. "Labor-intensive industries like manufacturing, construction, agriculture and mining tend to have a lower PC-to-employee ratio. Such sectors account for 50% of the MB universe and are expected to invest in IT automation," said Jackie Chan Jackie Chan SBS, (born April 7, 1954), also known as Sing Lung in Cantonese (Traditional Chinese: 成龍; Simplified Chinese: 成龙 , Senior Analyst at AMI-Partners. Going Mobile -- Approaching the Wireless Era China MBs are well penetrated with Internet access See how to access the Internet. , and rely heavily on the Internet to increase sales efficiency and to streamline their accounting and finance processes. The rapid globalization globalization Process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world. Factors that have contributed to globalization include increasingly sophisticated communications and transportation of the economy has resulted in a growing mobile workforce among China MBs: --Currently, more than two thirds of China MBs have mobile employees who travel for business at least four to five days monthly. --China MBs have more than one business location and a typical MB has approximately four branch offices. AMI's study shows that implementation of wireless technologies and applications will be an important strategic focus area for the next 12 months. With recent advancements in wireless networks such as WiMax, declining prices of mobile devices, and application pervasiveness, mobility solutions are becoming a more feasible option for a growing number of China MBs. Intel and Cisco led in wireless LAN A local area network that transmits over the air typically in the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz unlicensed frequency band. It does not require line of sight between sender and receiver. Wireless base stations (access points) are wired to an Ethernet network and transmit a radio frequency over an area purchases during 2004. A Growing Awareness and Adoption of Security Solutions Enhancing data security, data backup and disaster recovery are all among the top strategic focus areas in the next 12 months for China MBs. Drivers include increased mobility, branch office expansion and increasing IP-based solutions. --Almost three quarters of MBs in China have installed anti-virus protection, with more than one in five upgrading their solutions within the past couple of years. --Over half of businesses have deployed some form of network-based firewall. Virtual private networks (VPNs) have attracted the MBs as well. China MBs have made significant investments during the last 12 months on security-related products and services such as anti-virus and anti-spam software, intrusion-detection programs, firewalls and other IT security measures Noun 1. security measures - measures taken as a precaution against theft or espionage or sabotage etc.; "military security has been stepped up since the recent uprising" security . About the Study AMI's 2004-2005 China Medium Business Market Overview and Topline Assessment study highlights 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 survey of MBs across China, the study tracks a broad spectrum of issues pertaining per·tain intr.v. per·tained, per·tain·ing, per·tains 1. To have reference; relate: evidence that pertains to the accident. 2. 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 Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. priorities. These point to key opportunities and messaging hot buttons for vendors and service providers seeking to match their offerings to MB market requirements. For more information about this study, AMI-Partners, or our global SMB research, please call AMI-Partners at 212-944-5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com, or visit the AMI Web site at www.ami-partners.com. About AMI-Partners Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence -- focusing on global small and medium business (SMB) enterprises. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business planning and "go-to-market" solutions. AMI was founded in 1996 under the name of Access Media International (USA), Inc. by Andy Bose, formerly a group vice president at IDC. Since its inception, the firm has built a world-class management team, each with ten to fifteen years' experience in IT, telecom, online communications or multimedia. 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 nine 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 20 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. |
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