SMEs Strategically Planning ICT Investments Post Downturn: AMI-Partners

New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners has just released its new ‘Heat Map’, intelligence on the top SME verticals planning to make significant ICT investments this year.
During the recession, SMEs severely restricted their spending, especially on new ICT investments. Most SMEs focused on leveraging existing ICT to manage through the downturn. However, as the global economy recovers, SMEs are strategically planning for their next ICT investments.

“Marketing to SMEs has always been challenging due to the fact that there are 69 million SMEs worldwide, with extremely diverse IT needs and purchasing behaviours,” says Chad Thompson, Vice President of AMI’s Marketing Strategy Group. “What makes this moment even more complicated for marketers is that SMEs will pull through the recession differently, impacting their ICT investments in a variety of ways.”

AMI’s research was fielded in eleven leading countries to assess SMEs’ ICT spending plans for the coming months, as well as what solutions they plan to purchase. AMI interviewed business decision makers (BDMs) and technical decision makers (TDMs) of SMEs across 19 vertical industries to determine:

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• When and if SMEs plan to make ICT purchases in the next 12 months
• How they will collect information that will directly inform their ICT purchases
• Where they plan to make their ICT purchases (for example, online, retail, VARs, direct, etc)

“AMI’s go-to-market intelligence helps clients identify the key verticals to target in 2010 in addition to how to reach these verticals in terms of purchase triggers and routes-to-market implications,” said Thompson. “Marketers will need a handle on all of these elements in order to successfully capture SMEs’ ICT spending in 2010.” AMI’s vertical heat map analysis and RTM forecasts of ICT spending provide a powerful engine for driving high ROMI (Return on Marketing Investments).

The countries included in this research are: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France, Germany, UK, China, India, Korea, and Australia.