The AMI-Partners Blog

Last month I was able to attend HP’s Spring PC Tour where HP announced the release of its TouchSmart Elite 9300 Business Desktop PC, which is expected to be made available in the U.S. in May. This all-in-one desktop is the latest offering from HP’s TouchSmart series. You can read more about the device’s specs here.

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AMI has a new press release on Cisco’s 2011 Asia-Pacific Summit.

From January 20 – 21, Cisco held its annual 2011 Singapore Summit. Under the motto, “Capturing the Next Wave: Empowered for Business Success,” Cisco and their partners showcased their latest innovations in unified information and communications technology and Cloud computing with the clear objective in mind to enable their customers to seamlessly integrate the latest Borderless Network, Collaboration and Data Center technologies in a vertical business environment.

Read the full release here.

Social media marketing garners tremendous attention from IT and telecom marketers –and rightly so.  Success stories of enhanced customer engagement, increased branding opportunities and improved revenues, proves that the “social web” is indispensible when marketing to SMBs (small and medium businesses).  However, when it comes to social media, marketers use discretion.

Your instincts may urge you to push for increased budgets, or move “traditional” marketing dollars to social media campaigns, but don’t let the allure of “likes” or “followers” distract you from creating a holistic SMB marketing strategy.  This is not to say, social media aren’t effective.  In fact, over 2.3 million SMBs have purchased IT and telecom products and/or services by way of social media.  Nonetheless, the upshot of online social interaction among potential business customers shouldn’t overshadow your other marketing activities.  Below are a few reasons why.

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The President delivered his State of the Union address last night, and it’s being dissected by pundits today. One section of note emphasizes the importance of small businesses, technology and job growth. It may have been the most naturally bipartisan part of his speech.

Some highlights below with a little commentary from us. (Full transcript is here.)

“Within the next five years,” the President began, “we’ll make it possible for businesses to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98 percent of all Americans.  This isn’t just about — (applause) — this isn’t about faster Internet or fewer dropped calls.  It’s about connecting every part of America to the digital age.”

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Nobody really wants to carry two mobile phones. But it does happen, and it can be embarrassing. Ever have your Lady GaGa ring tone on your iPhone boom in the middle of a meeting? Or have your Blackberry suddenly ding incessantly with urgent e-mails from work—and you’re on a date? It’s probably fair to say consumers drive smart phone hype more than small and medium businesses do. It’s also fair to say that iPhones—a consumer device—have made an impression on the small and medium business market and that Blackberrys—a business tool—have made their claim in the consumer market. The point is, the lines between business and consumer markets have blurred for smart phone manufacturers, telcos, and SMB users.

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So, it seem like Facebook is on everyone’s minds. After the note about SBs+Facebook – Facebook SB users have 4 faces we should be aware of.

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AMI has a new press release on SaaS spending in India:

Kolkata, India – January 12, 2011 – Small and medium business (SMB) spending in India on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), a key component of cloud computing, is anticipated to rise by a sizable 43% in 2011. More than 10% of Internet-owning India SMBs have shown interest in adopting cloud computing in the next year. This is one of the key findings from a recently completed AMI study, “2010-2011 India SMB State of the Cloud Market Overview,” conducted across major as well as Tier II cities. Medium businesses (organizations with 100-999 full-time employees) have displayed significantly higher interest than their smaller counterparts.

Read the full release here.

With Mark Zuckerberg’s recent China trip, the most probable 2012-IPO-of-the-year, Goldman’s recent valuation of $50 B, over 3x more than Microsoft’s once-gasped-at 2007 valuation, as well as the recent frenzie behind Facebook’s new email capabilities, it is not a surprise to find that 60% of US SBs –roughly 4 M SBs –are leveraging Facebook to market and build brand awareness. It’s pretty simple to conclude that having a public Facebook page is a “De facto” now a day; we are even finding businesses without websites are using Facebook instead as a platform to market themselves. Based on – AMI’s new social media and cloud study – almost 2 in every 5 of those businesses using FB succeed, meaning they incur a positive boost in revenue but what happened to the other 60% who didn’t see any boost?

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AMI has a new press release on SMB social media marketing:

New York, New York – December 2, 2010 – Social media marketing is growing among small businesses (SBs) in the U.S., but true breakout growth in this category is being challenged by SB owner inertia.

According to a new report by AMI-Partners, “2010 U.S. Small Business Marketing Activity and Spending Study: Where and How U.S. Small Businesses are Spending Marketing Dollars,” marketing program decisions are largely driven by business decision makers, such as owners, who are responsible for managing many other aspects of their business. This limits the amount of time they can devote to exploring and engaging social media. Consequently, a majority of U.S. SB marketing activities are likely to be on an automatic renewal cycle, benefiting traditional vehicles such as printed telephone directories.

Full release here.

AMI has a new press release announcing the winners of its Social Media Marketing Awards:

New York, New York – November 11, 2010 – Today, New York-based AMI-Partners announced the winners of its first annual Small and Medium Business Social Media Marketing Awards, which acknowledge Information and Communications Technology (ICT) providers who effectively use social media to inform the purchase process of small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Full release here.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.