AMI-PARTNERS:SMBs in 16 ASEAN Cities Contribute More Than 60% to Total IT and Communications Spend in 2009

Top three cities in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam
respectively, plus Singapore, contribute to the lion`s share of SMB ICT spending
in ASEAN
SINGAPORE--(Business Wire)--
Small and medium businesses (SMBs or companies with less than 1,000 employees)
in key ASEAN countries are on track to spend US$24 billion on ICT products and
services in 2009, up by about 5% over 2008, and about half the pre-crisis
forecast growth rate.

Even at a much reduced growth rate of 5%, the ASEAN region will still perform
better than other regions around the world, and is a market that all ICT vendors
should not neglect in their growth and expansion plans," according to the latest
ASEAN opportunity analysis by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

"Among all ASEAN countries, Singapore SMBs, which constitute about 13% of the
total SMB ICT spending, is expected to chalk up the slowest growth. Hence, ICT
vendors are increasingly looking to SMBs in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand,
Philippines and Vietnam to help achieve their regional revenue growth targets,"
according to Tram Tong, a Singapore-based Research Analyst with AMI-Partners.

Given these markets are much larger geographically than Singapore, and that
there are varying ICT maturity levels across various cities in each country,
targeting SMBs in a random manner across the whole country will not be
effective, especially for vendors wanting high-impact success with limited
resources, time and budget. Also, with the crisis still looming, it is becoming
evident that ICT vendors need to have a realistic geo-expansion strategy and
laser-sharp decision-making process in order to enhance their footprints in the
ASEAN markets.

"In almost all of the ASEAN countries, the top three major cities contribute to
around 40% of the country`s ICT spending. These cities are Kuala Lumpur, Johor
Bahru and Shah Alam for Malaysia, Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan for Indonesia,
Bangkok, Nakhon Ratchasima and Chiang Mai for Thailand, Makati, Manila and
Quezon for the Philippines, and Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and Binh Duong for Vietnam,"
says Ms. Tong.

"In 2009, small businesses in the key ASEAN cities will spend US$10,000 to
US$15,000 on ICT, except for Singapore, where SBs are expected to spend about
40% higher," maintains Ms. Tong. "Medium businesses in the top three cities of
Malaysia are expected to be the second highest ICT spenders, behind Singapore
MBs, and for the rest of ASEAN region, MBs in the key cities of Philippines,
Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, will spend approximately eight to ten times
more on ICT than SBs."

In terms of technology, SMBs in the key cities of Malaysia, Indonesia,
Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam will spend most of their 2009 ICT budget on
computing hardware, such as PCs, servers, printers and printing supplies, and
telecom services, which is reflective of the early stage of ICT adoption for
some of these SMBs.

Even though the ASEAN region is expected to experience lower growth in 2009
compared with previous years, well-informed vendors can still grow by having a
focused go-to-market approach. Vendors should target key city markets using
intelligence and insights from deep research and analyses to ward off any
lingering effects of the global crisis.

Related Studies

AMI-Partner`s ASEAN City-level market opportunity practices 2009 provides an
authoritative view of IT adoption and spending patterns in the SMB space across
75 ICT categories and 6 key countries at the city-level. Coming soon is the 2009
Australia & New Zealand Comprehensive City-level Market Opportunity Assessment.
These studies points to key opportunities and messaging hot buttons for vendors
and service providers seeking to match their offerings to SMBs market
requirement specifically at the city-level.

Based on AMI`s annual surveys of SMBs across Asia Pacific excluding Japan the
studies track a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to budgets, purchase
behaviors, decision influencers, channel preferences, outsourcing, service and
support. Also covered are detailed firmographics and critically important
technology attitudes and strategic planning priorities. In light of global
recessionary fears and the impact of economic downshifts on business,
AMI-Partners has expanded its tracking studies to include several questions
pertaining to SMBs` perceptions of their dependence on local, national and
global economies as well as their expectations about economic growth. These
questions gained added significance in light of the timing of this year`s
studies, which overlapped with the global financial crisis starting in
mid-September. AMI-Partners` studies, thus, present an early picture of an SMB
market undergoing a major transition. Given that many SMBs are at the leading
edge of this transition, AMI-Partners has included an additional analysis in
this year`s reports to assess demographics, attitudes, current IT adoption as
well as planned IT purchases among "concerned SMBs" compared to the rest of the
market. (AMI-Partners defines concerned SBs as those that expect the
local/regional economy will get worse in the next one year and concerned MBs as
those that expect the local/regional, national or global economy to get worse in
the next one year.) All the latest actions or plans from SMBs in the recession
time are synthesized in the city-level market opportunity practices in order to
provide ICT vendors with powerful and up-to-date market planning tool.

For more information about our studies, AMI-Partners, or our city-level market
research, call Tram Tong at +65 62205535, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com, or
visit us 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 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. 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 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.

AMI-Partners
Media:
Quoted Analyst:
Tram Tong, (65) 6220 5535 ext 117
ttong@ami-partners.com
or
Media Relations:
In US (New York):
Nancy Carty, 212-944 5100 ext 581
ncarty@ami-partners.com
or
In EU (London):
Claudia Jachtmann, (44) 208 987 2756
cjachtmann@ami-partners.com
or
In Asia Pacific (Singapore):
Matthew Foo, (65) 6220 5535
foo@ami-partners.com
or
In India (Kolkata):
Jyoti Singh, (91) 33 4003 3093 ext 223
jsingh@ami-partners.com
or
In India (Bangalore):
Rati Ghose, (91) 80 4148 2661 ext 36
rghose@ami-partners.com
or
In China (Shanghai):
Clara Chua, (86) 21 6390 6298
cchua@ami-partners.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009