Latest Pacnet survey finds majority of businesses already using hosted applications and moving on to higher bandwidth speeds for their Internet connections
SINGAPORE, Sept. 27 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Pacnet, Asia's leading business telecommunications service provider, today released its 2010 Broadband Barometer survey findings for Singapore, which showed a high percentage of hosted applications usage among Singapore small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and a growing sophistication in their planned hosted application usage.
The survey found that hosted security applications were the most popular category of hosted applications among Singapore SMEs, with 9 out of 10 SMEs having deployed at least one hosted security application in 2010. Among the security applications deployed, 89% of SMEs had deployed a hosted firewall or intrusion detection solution.
Interestingly, while the survey found that 29% of SMEs have deployed at least one hosted business application, 32% more indicated their intention to deploy a hosted business application next year. Other hosted applications that SMEs indicated their interest in deploying next year include server virtualization, which was flagged by 43% of SMEs, and 35% said they will deploy hosted data backup solutions next year.
"The high adoption rate of hosted solutions certainly validates the trend that we are seeing in the demand for hosted applications," noted Jacques Grezaud, Managing Director, Pacnet Singapore and Indonesia. "More importantly, many SMEs have indicated their intention to adopt more advanced hosted applications, indicating to us that a significant number SMEs here are ready to move 'into the cloud' to realize the benefits that include a low upfront investment and pay-per-use pricing."
"We have definitely seen increased adoption of ICT applications among our members, especially among those who have been expanding their businesses beyond Singapore," said Stephen Lim, Technology Committee Chairman, Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI). "SMEs are recognizing that deploying new hosted applications need not be complex or expensive, but yet, have a positive impact on their businesses. However, their challenge remains with the evaluation and selection of suitable solution and vendors."
Findings from the Pacnet Broadband Barometer also revealed that Internet access is now ubiquitous among SMEs in Singapore -- with 95% of businesses with 5 to 999 employees having Internet access. According to AMI Partners, these SMEs (5-999 employees) in Singapore are expected to spend in excess of US$138 million (S$193 million) on Internet access in 2010, and the majority of this is expected to be on broadband Internet access.
The study has also reported a continued rise in the adoption of higher Internet speeds by companies of all sizes. Compared to a similar study conducted by Pacnet in 2006 where the most common connection speed was 512 Kbps, the latest study found that the most common connection speed has moved up to the 2 to 10 Mbps category. "Additionally, while penetration rates are still lower compared to Hong Kong, especially in the higher speed ranges of 25-100 Mbps and above 100 Mbps, this may noticeably increase after the completion of the government's Next Generation National Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) fiber network," said Dr. Vu-Thanh Nguyen, Research Analyst, AMI Partners, Asia Pacific.
The survey also found that businesses had a generally positive response to the impact of the government's Next Gen NBN project, which promises to enable consumers and businesses with high speed broadband through a national fiber optic network. The study found that 69% of respondents felt that the project will or could provide better access to public information, while 67% felt that it will or could improve business productivity. 62% of the respondents also felt that the project will or could lower the cost of Internet access for businesses.
Singapore SMEs also led in their support for remote Internet access for their employees. The study found that some 34% of SMEs in Singapore already support remote Internet access, higher than Australia, Hong Kong, mainland China and India, while another 40% said that they plan to support remote Internet access in 2011.
"Enabling employees who need to be on the move with remote access empowers them to continue to be productive even from home and Singapore SMEs are obviously recognizing the benefits of this," noted Mr Grezaud. Not surprisingly, email was the top application among employees using remote Internet access.
As part of the study, the Pacnet Broadband Barometer Index was compiled to reflect the state of Internet development among businesses in a country. The higher the score, the more savvy businesses in the country are to broadband and its applications. Among the five countries surveyed, Singapore came in second with a score of 77, behind Australia at 82 and ahead of Hong Kong at 72.
"The maturity and the adoption of hosted business applications are the primary reasons why Singapore has seen a higher score than some of the other Asian countries," said Venu Reddy, Vice President, AMI Partners, Asia Pacific. "This is expected to continue to increase as the companies in Singapore see greater number of choices and solutions that meet their business application needs," he added.
Pacnet commissioned Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc., a leading consulting firm specializing in IT and telecoms to conduct the Pacnet Broadband Barometer survey across Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India and Singapore. In Singapore, the survey involved phone interviews with 350 IT decision makers across the country during the period from January to April 2010.
To download a full copy of the 2010 Pacnet Broadband Barometer report, visit http://sg.pacnet.com/broadband-barometer .
About the 2010 Broadband Barometer
The Pacnet Broadband Barometer study aims to assess the adoption and usage of internet technologies by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs, companies with 5 to 999 employees) across the Asia-Pacific region. Since its launch in 2003, the "Broadband Barometer" (previously also known as the Pacnet IP Index) has been widely used and referenced by a range of decision makers and analysts across businesses, government agencies and the media.
This latest Broadband Barometer study is jointly developed by Pacnet and AMI-Partners, a leading consulting firm specialising in IT and telecom sectors. More than 2,000 technology decision-makers across five countries (Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, and Singapore) were interviewed to provide a deep and comprehensive view of the Asia Pacific market.
About Pacnet
Named "Company of the Year for Excellence in Growth" by Frost & Sullivan in 2009 and "Best Wholesale Carrier" at the Telecom Asia Awards 2009, Pacnet is Asia's leading independent telecommunications service provider, formed from the operational merger of Asia Netcom and Pacific Internet. Pacnet owns and operates EAC-C2C, the region's largest privately-owned submarine cable network at 36,800 km, with a design capacity of 10.24 Tbps, as well as EAC Pacific, which spans 9,620 km across the Pacific Ocean and delivers up to 1.92 Tbps of capacity between Asia and North America. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of industry leading IP-based solutions for carriers, large enterprises and SMEs. Pacnet is headquartered in Hong Kong and Singapore, with offices in all key markets in Asia and North America.
In Singapore, Pacnet's core network and premium solutions are backed by a range of infrastructure options, which provide services customised to the specific needs of individual customers. Pacnet specialises in multi-site connections and enables hosted solutions with a dedicated local team to connect manage and support business communication requirements. For more information, please visit: http://sg.pacnet.com .
About AMI-Partners
AMI-Partners specialises in IT, internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence -- with a strong focus on global Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), 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 SME strategies of more than 150 leading IT, internet, telecommunications and business services companies. The firm is well known for its IT and internet adoption-based segmentation of the SME markets; its annual retainership services based on global SME tracking surveys in more than 25 countries; and its proprietary database of SMEs and SME channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey based information from several thousand SMEs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SME trends and analysis.
For further information, please contact:
Roland Lim
Pacnet
Tel: +852-2121-2975
Email: roland.lim@pacnet.com
Natalie Lim
Pacnet
Tel: +65-6591-9616
Email: natalie.lim@pacnet.com
