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Analysis of demand for cloud infrastructure, productivity and business applications,

unified communications and telecom services across thirty-five countries

New York, NY – July 15, 2010 – AMI-Partners, the leader in global ICT market intelligence and go-to-market consulting in the small and medium business (SMB) space, has launched a groundbreaking, unique series of services focused on assessing the market opportunity for cloud offerings in the SMB market.

“Cloud services have gained a good foothold in the SMB market over the last two years, and represent the next significant wave of ICT innovation,” says Andy Bose, AMI’s Chief Executive Officer. “A growing number of firms are using cloud services to manage a variety of business tasks, including communications, operations, sales and marketing, among others. As cloud adoption becomes more pervasive, AMI views this as evidence of a major trend on the level of the introduction of PCs in the 1980s, and the advent of the Internet in the 1990s.”

The current economic climate is accelerating SMB cloud adoption; SMBs need to do more with less. Specific business drivers include the need for agility, scalability, and cost control, with customer retention and acquisition as key priorities. Cloud services have the potential to deliver transformative business performance, and are therefore extremely critical to SMBs.

AMI’s Global SMB Cloud Services provides critical market intelligence for ICT vendors to enable:

1. Assessment and quantification of demand for cloud infrastructure and services among global SMBs
2. Identification of specific features, bundles and pricing to maximize SMB cloud service purchase likelihood
3. Track uptake, revenues, and highlight decision making criteria and channel preferences
4. Target key SMB segments via AMI’s lead generation and customer acquisition solutions, based on SMB propensity to adopt cloud services across multiple categories – productivity/business applications, unified communications (UC) and IT infrastructure services.

AMI’s Cloud Services provides comprehensive coverage of:

• • Platforms and Devices
• • IT Infrastructure Services
• • Business Productivity Applications
• • Business Mgmt./Line of Business Applications
• • Unified Communications

Business issues addressed include:

• • Cloud Services bundles – price & seat preferences
• • Incremental revenues & uplift analysis tied to bundles
• • Churn & Impact on Telco ARPU
• • Role of Telcos, IT Vendors, Channel Partners
• • Service provider selection criteria

AMI will be providing actionable go-to-market guidance in twenty-seven countries, starting with the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, Korea, Japan, India and Australia, followed by Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Czechoslavokia, Poland, Hungary, Norway, Egypt, Philippines and Indonesia.

“Cloud Services are starting to redefine and blur boundaries across categories of ICT players, especially incumbent communications services providers,” says Mr. Bose, “and players need to stay in the game by identifying and aligning with shifts in SMBs’ buying behavior, channel preferences, cloud usage models and price versus value assessments.”

For more information about AMI-Partners, our Global SMB Cloud Services, or our other global SMB research, please call 212 944 5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com or visit www.ami-partners.com.