After the first four months of 2013, it seems obvious that the US economy continues to at least inch upwards, despite the uncertain path to full recovery. Albeit to a modest extent, consumers are buying and companies are hiring. This positivity is reflected in the equities markets, but not all sectors are created equal. If [...]

In December 2012, AMI-Partners in Singapore launched a survey to interview 300 IT decision makers about their views on Windows 8.  These companies are from various industries and of different sizes (SMEs [small and medium enterprises] and enterprise are both included) The survey was carried out just one month after Microsoft officially launched Windows 8, [...]

About two weeks ago, I happen to get tickets to the exclusive launch event for Samsung’s Experience Shop™ in New York City. As I was getting the tickets, there were people giving away all kinds of Samsung gear and making the event very interactive. It was interactive in that we watched demonstrations of key features [...]

AMI has written several blogs that talk about the cloud opportunity in North America and other mature markets, but we have yet to write a blog showing the growing opportunity in emerging markets.  Our recent ICT tracking study helped define the cloud opportunity on a global basis, detailing information and communication technology (ICT) needs at [...]

Convenience or Chaos?  Is there a game plan in the near future? Bring Your Own Device or BYOD is a policy that allows employees to bring their personal mobile computing devices to work places and connect them on the corporate network. Some of the many benefits of a BYOD program include: keeping employees happy as they [...]

As small and medium business (SMB) demand for cloud services continues to accelerate, vendors are finding it increasingly challenging to support their partners in the migration to a cloud based business model. To this end, AMI is introducing its Partner Transformation and Enablement Program. This program provides vendors’ partners with an actionable strategic blueprint and [...]

Get connected, get secure – should become the new mantra for small and medium businesses (SMBs)  New age technologies like mobile devices and cloud-based technologies have totally changed our lives and provided it with new impetus as well as a new degree of freedom. We use tablets, smartphones, or other mobile devices to access the [...]

In North America, Apple’s iPad is the leading tablet brand utilized by either SMBs (small and medium businesses) or their employees. Although this is clear in terms of current usage and even planned purchases to an extent, the tablet market between other well-known original equipment manufacturers (OEM) players, like Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, and HP is [...]

As per AMI-Partners ICT tracking study the smartphone penetration in India is close to 65%. Additionally, according to a report by GSMA, a global telecom body, penetration of unique mobile subscribers in India is at 25%. The report also notes that 2.2 SIM cards per user is the average in India, whereas the worldwide average [...]

Tablets have had an incredible impact on mobility among the SMB (small and medium business) market, and the horizon promises advancements that will blur the line between tablets and ultrabooks – possibly even smartphones as well.  As the market evolves, monitoring SMB buying behavior will become increasingly more important.  For example, will SMBs be buying [...]

It was Social Media Week in New York City a few weeks ago – a week-long event to meet and learn about the newest trends and strategies used by a variety of companies. As a second time participating in the event, I was amazed at how much it has grown and the continuous learning that [...]

Here is a nice infographic from Microsoft that displays some of our data on SMBs and their technology usage: Click here for a larger view of the infographic: 2013 SMB Office 365 Infographic

In a connected world, securing enterprise systems is a top priority. A fundamental concern for organizations worldwide is to protect their mission-critical applications, sensitive electronic data, and underlying computing infrastructure. It is a challenging and never-ending task—a space where IT (information technology) and security personnel will always have their hands full. Therefore, it is not [...]

AMI-Partners actively studies several information and communication technologies (ICT) used by small and medium businesses (SMBs of 1-1000 employees).  Several of our blogs to date have been about device or software utilization–very important areas for this market.  However, equally important is the mindset and decision making process that these SMBs go through when purchasing ICT [...]

There are clear leaders in terms of global mobile vendors, but the market has tremendous room for shares to shift. This is especially true in Latin America (LATAM), which lags the U.S. by over a year in terms of most mobility trends. Brazil and Mexico are two of the world’s largest countries by many measures. [...]

Consumerization of IT has emerged as the latest buzz word, as vendors, partners, and service providers try to understand the changing dynamics among purchase influencers in technology. Microsoft defines Consumerization of IT as "the increasing influence that our technology experiences, as consumers, — both hardware and applications—have on the technology that we expect to use at work”. The definition implies that awareness and knowledge of IT (information technology) products and solutions has gone beyond the few elite who understand technology to consumers. Now, consumers are savvy enough to try IT solutions on their own, get comfortable with them, and then decide whether to keep using such solutions further. According to NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies), the average consumer in India is moving up the IT maturity curve.

Is SMB IT properly protected? Recent AMI interviews with thousands of SMBs (small and medium businesses) across the globe confirm in spades the game-changing shifts occurring in the ICT (information and communication technology) industry currently. The ubiquity of fast Internet access services; the proliferation of mobile devices (first smartphones and now tablets) and their usage [...]

Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs) are increasingly connected, with 92% having Internet access and 64% having Local Area Networks (LAN) in the US. Of medium sized businesses (MBs), 100% have Internet access and 99% have LAN or Wide Area Networks (WAN). These SMBs are rapidly moving to the cloud to meet storage, infrastructure, security, [...]

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow” – John Dewey The education sector is one of the most important sectors in India with 1.3 million schools. In the Union Budget of 2011-2012, Rs 52,057 crores ($9.7 Billion USD) was allocated for this sector alone. The spending on education is very [...]

The BYOD Craze: It’s no secret that small and medium businesses (SMBs) are allowing employees to utilize their personal devices for business purposes (commonly known as ‘Bring-Your-Own-Device’ or BYOD). There are several benefits associated with this initiative, including, but not limited to, cost savings related to the procurement of devices and reduced time spent on [...]