Small and Medium Enterprise Business Communications in the UK

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Demand for new products and services, including unified communications

These last two charts in this section represent a refinement on the market demand and momentum comments above. Figure 5 shows the differential in ownership of the communications technologies surveyed between those respondents that identified that technologies could definitely give them a competitive edge, and the rest of the market. Scoring highly on this chart indicates that the technology or service has been or is still in a relatively early adopter phase – those companies less focussed on or interested in technology are much less likely to have invested in it. Unsurprisingly, broadband, mobile telephones and laptops show the least differential – few businesses could do without all three today.

The key result is that VoIP, 3G, WiFi, and mobile devices show the highest differential. This again very clearly illustrates what the market has been valuing in terms of business benefit – integrated IP telephony and mobile working.

The second chart illustrates this ownership differential data against the differential in buying plans. A large differential in investment plans suggests that a technology or service is still of most interest to early or aggressive adopters, and/or is showing to them the greatest potential for competitive edge. VoIP is again the greatest differential – it’s still more attractive to early or aggressive users who perhaps have a better understanding of the value beyond simply saving money. Those same users are also more aggressively investing in the relatively mature technologies – broadband, mobile telephones, and BlackBerries. The fact that the PDA/Smartphone category shows a much lower buying differential than ownership differential suggests that it is not just leading-edge buyers who are adopting them today – it is seen as a more mainstream product category.

Figure 5

Ownership differential - companies feeling that technology definitely helps them to be competitive vs the rest (SME)

Figure 6

Comparision of ownership differential and buying plans differential SME companies that think technology gives them a definite competitive edge vs the rest