AMI-Partners' Study Shows Singapore Small Businesses Invested $1.63 Billion in IT/Telecom in the Past 12 Months and Outlook for 2004 Remains Robust.

Business Editors

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 25, 2004

AMI-Partners

-- Key Drivers of IT/Telecom Spending Include Wireless

Networking, Internet Infrastructure, IP-Based Solutions, and

Security

-- VoIP deployment is expected to triple its current level by

end-2004

-- AMI-Partners Announces the Launch of Their Singapore Office

Despite the weak global economy and the additional economic impact of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARs) outbreak, Singapore Small Businesses (SBs) surged ahead, increasing revenues by 6% and investing $1.63 billion towards IT & Telecom. Half of this spending was on IT-related hardware, software and services and the rest on Telecom. While the primary focus was on replacement of aging PCs and networking hardware, a large number of these PC-owning businesses also invested heavily in leveraging the Internet to reduce costs of operations and improve communications.

The above findings were released today by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc., a leading consulting firm specializing in IT, Internet, Telecom and business services market intelligence, trends and strategy with a strong focus on global small and medium business (SMB) enterprises. AMI conducts the IT industry's most comprehensive annual tracking surveys of SMBs in several countries, including the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico.

Expansion of work force, new sites & positive outlook for next 12 months

"Although the SB market registered an increase of 6% in revenues in the last 12 months, there's no question that the economic slowdown had an adverse effect on the SBs," said Jackie Chan, Senior Analyst at AMI. According to the AMI study, 42% of Singapore PC SBs indicated an increase in their annual revenues over the prior year, but 27% experienced a decline in sales. "However, the picture for next 12 months appear bright as SBs are projecting double-digit revenue growth, and plans are being put in place to expand their current workforce and branch office locations," added Chan. The AMI study also revealed that 62% of Singapore PC SBs anticipate an increase in revenues during the next 12 months, and a number of additional branch offices are planned as these SBs expand. Moreover, 53% of PC SBs plan to each add an average of 2 employees, potentially escalating the Singapore PC SB workforce by 23%. Notwithstanding, the SB market's extremely bullish outlook, there may be an element of wishful thinking on the part of SBs as they emerge from a difficult economic climate.

Surge in wireless solutions as SBs seek true mobility and connectivity

Singapore SBs invested roughly $600 million on wireless connectivity solutions in 2003, including wireless LAN, VPN and WAN. Singapore is aggressively pushing to make wireless access available in public spaces, with hundreds of cafes, fast-food restaurants, libraries and the airport already offering wireless hotspots. This bodes well for SBs as nearly 60% of them have an average of 2 mobile employees that travel for business at least 4 or 5 days a month, which is equivalent to about 115,000 employees that need to remain productive on the road. Coupled with aggressive branch office plans, SBs are looking to implement solutions that will enable them to effectively keep in contact with remote locations while simplifying the management of inter-office moves and facilitating smooth employee relocations. Of the 30,500 SBs who are currently connected through a LAN, a fourth of them have implemented a wireless LAN and this number is expected to grow by 50% in the next 12 months. More than 11,000 SBs have deployed a VPN, mainly a router/firewall appliance-based VPN located on their premises, and more than 76,000 sites are currently connected via WAN. Driven by cost-savings that can be achieved with Ethernet cabling and falling prices of broadband access, notebook PCs, handheld devices and MMS-enabled cellular phones, AMI expects significant numbers of near-term LAN adopters to adopt wireless networks. Furthermore, Singapore recently allocated spectrum space for WiMax technology, which promises not only wider coverage but also faster connections. Development of this technology, and the new equipment that is needed for this standard, will further fuel the growth of wireless technology.

Leverage the Internet for operational cost-savings and efficiencies

AMI-Partners' findings suggest that Singapore SBs' recent heavy investment in online solutions and infrastructure have facilitated IP enabled business processes. Internet-related investments among Singapore SBs totaled $220 million in 2003, comprising 28% of total IT expenditures. Among the 85,000 SBs who currently have Internet access, instant messaging is a mainstream application as it provides for mobile, real-time communications in a cost-effective manner. In the next 12 months, broadband adoption will be highly driven by applications that contribute to cost reduction and organizational efficiencies, including web casting, VoIP, and hosted applications. While 8,500 SBs plan to subscribe to hosted applications in the next 12 months, 21,000-22,000 SBs are planning to deploy web casting and make telephone calls over the Internet. In shifting to a converged IP environment encompassing voice and data, VoIP penetration could potentially triple in the next 12 months, if intentions are realized.

Evidence of an enormous market with unmet security needs

Increasing reliance on the Internet has led to growing awareness of the importance of electronic security solutions. In order to address their security concerns, a total of $0.04 billion was spent on security components in the last 12 months, including hardware, software and services delivered by a third party. Currently, 18% of Singapore SBs have implemented a firewall, and SBs favor software-based firewalls running on PCs and/or LAN servers. AMI-Partners' study reveals that while nearly a third of Singapore PC SBs strongly agree that electronic threats can severely impair or halt their business operations, only 11% feel adequately protected against these threats. "Simply put, there is a market with a minimum of 17,000 SBs who are in need of security solutions, but these needs have not been met due to budgetary constraints and lack of internal IT human resources, among other reasons," observed Chan. Two-thirds of Singapore SBs believe that electronic security solutions are costly and complex to implement and maintain. This SB market can be a "sweet-spot" for security vendors, given the proper breadth of scaled-down solutions catering to the need of Small Businesses, as well as sufficient product education, in addition to service and support.

AMI-Partners opens its regional research center and client services office in Singapore

AMI-Partners is pleased to announce the launch of its office in Singapore in Suntec City. "Singapore is a strategic location for us at this stage of our growth and evolution. It will help us to serve our client base which includes the IT industry's well established leaders and as well emerging players with more actionable, go-to-market insights for the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, including Greater China and ASEAN countries," said Andy Bose, CEO at AMI. "The Asia-Pacific SMB market is expected to outpace their North America, Latin America and Western European counterparts in terms of IT spending and take-up rates. It is very exciting to be a part of the technology boom that promises to re-shape the region with far reaching implications for the IT and Telecom sectors," added Mr. Anurag Agrawal, Chief Operating Officer of AMI. For several years AMI-Partners has been tracking SMB-focused marketing intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region specifically in China, India, Korea, Australia and Singapore.

About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. (AMI-Partners)

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. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower the firm's clients for success with the highest quality data, business planning and "go-to-market" solutions. AMI-Partners was founded in 1996 under the name of Access Media International (USA), Inc. (AMI-USA) by Andy Bose, formerly a group vice president at IDC. Since its inception, the firm has built a world-class management team spanning 10 to 25 years in IT, telecommunications, online communications and multimedia. The team is comprised of individuals who formerly built careers at leading industry-companies such as ADP, Cablevision, Compaq, IBM, IDC, Gartner, McKinsey and other major corporations.

AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 130 leading IT, Internet, Telecom and business services companies in the last seven 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; and its proprietary database of several thousand SMBs in the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information with several thousand SMBs globally through the industry's most comprehensive SMB survey instrument, and is considered to be the leading benchmark for tracking SMB trends.

For more information on AMI-Partners or our Global SMB surveys please visit www.ami-partners.com or call 212-944-5100.