SMEs still spending on telco, but focus on ROI

Peter Dinham
Monday, 30 March 2009 09:07

Business IT - Technology

The financial downturn has all businesses tightening their belts and focussing on getting greater bang for their buck as they look for ways to survive the crisis.

Amongst small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) in Australia, a report out today by technology industry analysts, Ovum, says many of these SMEs are looking at telecommunications as a way to support their business during these tough times, with 73% of the companies surveyed believe that investing in the latest telecoms solutions can make their business more successful.
 
Ovum senior analyst, Claudio Castelli, says this is a clear indication that SMEs will not stop spending on telecommunications during the financial downturn, however, they will focus their spending on solutions that make a direct impact on their business performance and which provide a clear return on investment.

Castelli says SMEs are more likely to adopt managed and hosted services in order to avoid unnecessary up-front capital investments and, he says, 79% of the companies prefer to have a predictable monthly recurring charge per user for telecoms equipment and services.
 
“We expect that the Software as a Service (SaaS) approach will offer good opportunities for services providers and solution vendors,” Castelli says.
 
According to Castelli, overall, SMEs like simplicity when dealing with their providers, with 83% of the SMEs in Australia preferring to purchase all their fixed and mobile telecoms services from a single source.

Bundling multiple services including fixed and mobile represents additional opportunities for providers, according to Castelli, but he says these bundles have to offer commercial benefits when compared to the stand-alone offerings, with most of the SMEs (66%) still believing that price is the most important factor when selecting providers.
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