European research outfit Analysys says the total spend by small and medium sized enterprises – companies with 10 to 500 employees – was nearing its peak among developed economies.
In a study of economies in Western Europe found that after 2009, the number of new SME broadband customers would be small, with broadband penetration of businesses exceeding 90 per cent in most countries.
“Growth in demand for broadband managed services in the SME market is creating a new potential source of revenue for suppliers of broadband access services,” the Analysys report said.
“Billions of (dollars) in additional annual revenue are ready to be shared among suppliers that can provide SMEs with the right service packages to complement basic Internet access,” it said.
Analysys said that in the developed economies of Western Europe, demand for among SME’s broadband managed services would grow at a compound annual rate of more than 11 per cent – representing a huge opportunity for ISPs to extend their customer relationships.
Broadband providers are in a position to exploit this growth if they can find cost-effective ways to deliver a wide range of managed services, such as VoIP, managed IT services, hosted data and software as a service, the report said.
In the Australian market, local consultant Paul Budde from BuddeCom has long argued that ISP’s that want to survive should be looking to sell value-added services.
“It was (and is) my argument that access and basic services are commodity products that will always be under pressure, and very vulnerable to the whims of the network provider,” Mr Budde says in in his latest BuddeBlog newsletter.
“On several occasions Telstra has changed the rules, with the stroke of a pen, sending many telcos and ISPs to the wall as a result,” he said.
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