Spending on IP telephony by small-to-medium-sized business (1-999 employees) across the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) will exceed $500 million this year, up more than 40% over last year.
Overall, SMB spending on IP telephony (including IP Centrex, IP PBX and IP phones/adaptors) is set to experience compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of more than 45% in the next five years.
These findings were released recently by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners.
The results, based on new research, reveal that IP telephony, though low in penetration compared to traditional telephony systems, is slowly but surely making strides as a viable telephony alternative.
This is especially significant among medium businesses (100-999 employees) which need to manage and control their spending on telecommunications.
'Within the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan), IP telephony will be driven by SMBs in Australia, Singapore, South Korea and New Zealand,' said Cindy Sim, Singapore-based analyst at AMI-Partners. 'The long-term savings that IP telephony can achieve presents a compelling value proposition that IT managers and CIOs cannot ignore. This becomes especially acute for companies that have multiple locations or branches within the country or abroad.'
In addition, with broadband penetration among SMBs in countries such as Australia, Singapore, South Korea and New Zealand exceeding 90%, IP telephony can leverage the existing IP infrastructure and be deployed quickly with minimal disruption to the business.
'Traditionally, large businesses were prime targets for IP telephony,' Sim said, adding that "SMBs also represent key focus areas for service providers. SMBs also want to enjoy the cost savings and flexibility that enterprises obtain with IP telephony.'
Interestingly, AMI expects spending on IP telephony by small businesses (1-99 employees) in the region to overtake that of medium businesses in the next five years.
Spending on IP PBX will continue to overshadow IP Centrex by a significant percentage.