Full RSS Feed
Receive
the Free CMSWire NewsletterThis week, following research from IBM that shows enterprises will be moving en masse to the cloud, AMI-Partners research shows SMBs are heading there too. New figures from RingCentral suggest tablets may be on the way to replacing PCs, while Avaya offers better collaboration and unified communications. Sage, too, has been busy and has released Peachtree 2012.
SMBs Cloud-Focused
Earlier, IBM released its Essential CIO report, which showed that a majority of CIOs will be looking to move their enterprises to the cloud in the next five years. That report didn’t give a breakdown of how big the companies survey are.
A new report from AMI-Partners (news, site) shows that in the SMB space, many companies will also be moving to the cloud, if not in the same numbers as their larger counterparts.
According to AMI-Partners, the proportion of budgets that is being consigned to cloud computing was 10% in 2010, but is forecasted to rise to more than 15% in 2015.
As this migration into the cloud accelerates, SMB buyers are showing a strong inclination to purchase bundled cloud offerings as opposed to a standalone application.
It also shows that 38% of US SMBs have indicated a strong preference for using SaaS as part of a package/bundle, versus only 11% who are interested in a single service.
One third of US SMBs are interested in bundling multiple hosted infrastructure and remotely managed services offerings, versus 9% of firms who only want a single service.
The research is contained in two reports due to be released soon. They include: SMB Cloud Overview, and SMB Cloud Playbook — Strategic and Tactical GTM Guide.
Combined, they show SMB preference for cloud-based application bundles, price sensitivity and purchase channel preferences.
Avaya Releases Office 7.0
Business collaboration vendor Avaya (news, site), has unveiled new product releases in the SMB space, including the new version of Avaya's communications solution for this market — Avaya IP Office 7.0 — which completes the integration of Nortel Enterprise Solutions (NES) IP and digital phones into the IP Office platform (NES was acquired by Avaya, Dec. 2009).
This integration enables approximately 14 million NES user to retain existing phones when upgrading to Avaya IP Office.
The upgrade can be accelerated and simplified by a new Data Migration Tool that lets partners transfer a business' existing data (i.e. voicemails, phone extensions) to their new systems without interruption.
Avaya IP Office 7.0 also delivers an expanded portfolio of devices for multimedia collaboration, including new color touchscreen desktop phones that let users scroll through contacts or manage visual voicemail.
Additionally, new conference room phones offer patented wide-band audio, call recording via SD card and fast USB connectivity to a laptop for temporary set-ups.
Tablets Replacing Laptops?
More research, this time from RingCentral, a vendor of cloud-based phone systems, shows that 51% of SMB professionals would rather take their tablet with them when traveling than a laptop or PC.
Their second annual survey on smartphone and mobile device use for business shows that almost one in every three professionals surveyed (29%) owns a tablet, with 62% using the tablet multiple times a day for business. Primary use for business includes checking emails, visiting websites and reviewing presentations.
Continue reading this article:
Email It
