eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
AMI-Partners, a firm that operates in global ICT market intelligence and go-to-market consulting in the small to medium-size business space, announced the launch of a series of services focused on assessing the market opportunity for cloud offerings in the SMB market.
AMI’s Cloud Services provides coverage of platforms and devices, IT infrastructure services, business productivity applications, business management and line-of-business applications, and unified communications.
Global SMB Cloud Services provides market intelligence for ICT vendors to enable assessment and quantification of demand for cloud infrastructure and services among global SMBs; identification of specific features, bundles and pricing to maximize SMB cloud service purchase likelihood; tracking of uptake and revenues and highlighting of decision-making criteria and channel preferences; and targeting of key SMB segments via AMI’s lead generation and customer acquisition solutions, based on SMB propensity to adopt cloud services across multiple categories-productivity/business applications, unified communications (UC) and IT infrastructure services.
“Cloud services have gained a good foothold in the SMB market over the last two years, and represent the next significant wave of ICT innovation,” said AMI’s CEO Andy Bose. “A growing number of firms are using cloud services to manage a variety of business tasks, including communications, operations, sales and marketing, among others. As cloud adoption becomes more pervasive, AMI views this as evidence of a major trend on the level of the introduction of PCs in the 1980s, and the advent of the Internet in the 1990s.”
Business issues addressed include cloud services bundles, with attention to price and seat preferences; incremental revenues and uplift analysis tied to bundles churn and impact on telco ARPU; the role of telcos, IT vendors and channel partners; and service provider selection criteria. AMI will be providing actionable go-to-market guidance in 35 countries, starting with the United States, Canada, Mexico, and a selection of nations in Europe and Asia.
Bose said the current economic climate is accelerating SMB cloud adoption and SMBs need to do more with less, with specific business drivers including the need for agility, scalability and cost control, with customer retention and acquisition as key priorities. “Cloud services have the potential to deliver transformative business performance, and are therefore extremely critical to SMBs,” he stated. “Cloud services are starting to redefine and blur boundaries across categories of ICT players, especially incumbent communications services providers, and players need to stay in the game by identifying and aligning with shifts in SMBs’ buying behavior, channel preferences, cloud usage models and price versus value assessments.”