AMI-Partners Study Shows Small Businesses Are Still Largely Unaware of Web-Based Personal Productivity Applications.--Online Vendors Must Overcome Inertia inertia (ĭnûr`shə), in physics, the resistance of a body to any alteration in its state of motion, i.e., the resistance of a body at rest to being set in motion or of a body in motion to any change of speed or change in direction of , Concerns about Security Threats And Potential Incompatibility The inability of a Husband and Wife to cohabit in a marital relationship. incompatibility n. the state of a marriage in which the spouses no longer have the mutual desire to live together and/or stay married, and is thus a ground for divorce Issues to Accelerate Adoption-- 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 -- Microsoft's Office suite has long dominated the personal productivity software market. However, the advent of online, Web-based productivity applications from innovators innovators people who will try new things. early innovators important figures in the farming or client community because they are the leaders in the introduction of new techniques and management systems. such as ThinkFree and Zoho, and more recently, IT giant Google, are providing new challenges to Microsoft's desktop dominance. Will these Web-based rivals be able give Microsoft a run for its money, and topple the status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. ? AMI's new study, Will Small Businesses Buy the Online Office?, fielded in the U.S., U.K., Brazil and India, examines small businesses (firms with 1-99 employees) and their awareness, adoption, drivers and inhibitors for online personal productivity solutions. Survey results show that many small businesses are unaware that online personal productivity solutions are even available. In fact, 38% of U.S., 50% of U.K., and 53% of India respondents In the context of marketing research, a representative sample drawn from a larger population of people from whom information is collected and used to develop or confirm marketing strategy. were not aware of this option. In addition, "Inertia, potential security threats, and possible incompatibility between online documents and PC software serve as inhibitors to SB adoption of online personal productivity solutions," according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Laurie McCabe, author of the report and Vice President for 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. Insights and Solutions at AMI-Partners. Internet connection and performance problems also hinder hin·der 1 v. hin·dered, hin·der·ing, hin·ders v.tr. 1. To be or get in the way of. 2. To obstruct or delay the progress of. v.intr. adoption in Brazil and India. What would drive SBs to adopt online productivity applications? A sizable siz·a·ble also size·a·ble adj. Of considerable size; fairly large. siz  a·ble·ness n. percentage of respondents view time and cost savings
convenience, mobility and ease of use as key benefits of using online
applications. Respondents are also much more likely to consider online
services given certain cost and pricing breaks. A high percentage of
customers in all four countries are willing to accept advertising in
exchange for free use of online personal productivity software, and a
significant number of customers would choose the online route given a
large enough pricing advantage over desktop solutions. Customers also
indicated strong interest in hybrid solutions that provide flexible
access via both desktop and Web interfaces.
To accelerate customer adoption, online vendors must boost awareness, promote more effectively the benefits of online personal productivity suites, entice collaboration users to use online document creation tools, and assure that their solutions will be compatible with Microsoft Office Microsoft's primary desktop applications for Windows and Mac. Depending on the package, it includes some combination of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook along with various Internet and other utilities. . About the Study This report includes a brief overview of the personal productivity software market, and summary of the competitive landscape. The report then delves Delves is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated a short distance to the south of Consett. into the results of AMI's focused research to examine the results of AMI's April 2007 phone survey designed to understand small businesses' readiness and willingness to consider and adopt online solutions. Respondents were sourced from AMI's proprietary U.S., U.K., Brazil and India SB customer lists (1 to 99 employees). To qualify for the survey, respondents had to be IT decision makers, work for firms that use the Internet, and have at least one PC. 60 interviews were completed in each of the four countries, for a total of 240 completed surveys. The report examines and analyzes the results of this survey, including: * Awareness among SBs of online personal productivity applications. * Current drivers and inhibitors that steer SBs to or away from adopting both online and packaged personal productivity solutions. * Propensity to currently use, and their plans to use, individual personal productivity solutions in a Web-based, online services model. * The role of price elasticity in consideration and adoption of online versus packaged personal productivity applications. * Customers' willingness to accept advertising in exchange for free online services. The report concludes with AMI's perspective on the market, and key implications for Microsoft, Google, and other online challengers. 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 Giving sufficient legal grounds for a lawsuit; giving rise to a Cause of Action. An act, event, or occurrence is said to be actionable when there are legal grounds for basing a lawsuit on it. 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 See SMB. ; 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. |
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