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Gradual business expansion and increased technology adoption act as key drivers, says AMI

Kolkata, India – May 22, 2012 – The server market among Bangladesh medium businesses (MBs, firms with 100-999 employees) is expected to show a rise in shipments of over 10% in 2012. Bangladesh MBs are an attractive segment for IT vendors although by volume they comprise a minuscule proportion (less than 3%) of the overall small, medium and enterprise universe accounting for a major portion of total IT spending. These findings emerge from the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. Focusing on ICT usage, AMI has comprehensively surveyed Bangladesh medium and large businesses during the last quarter of 2011 within the cities of Dhaka, Khulna, Chittagong and Rajshahi.

“Bangladesh medium businesses have been gradually overcoming the effects of the economic downturn and are slowly on the path towards recovery,” said Dev Chakravarty, Manager - Research at AMI-India. “This is evidenced by their demographic trends related to future economic performance and growth. A typical Bangladesh MB anticipates around a 5% rise in revenues next year. In addition, close to half of these MBs anticipate new employee hires and over a quarter are contemplating expansion of their branch office network in the same timeframe. These growth trends have a direct link with technology & connectivity infrastructure needs and consequently lead to greater server adoption,” Chakravarty continued. This greater server need is further corroborated by the fact that the top application areas of servers among MBs are collaboration-related functionalities such as file sharing, web conferencing, printer sharing, etc.

Another key factor in the rise of server usage is the need to provide an adequate infrastructure platform for greater adoption of business application software like ERP, CRM and other software like groupware/ workflow, imaging/ document management, etc. “Although ERP penetration has just crossed double digits among Bangladesh MBs,” adds Chakravarty, “there is significant potential for future growth as part of their strategic adoption plans for business process automation like CRM in the immediate future.” AMI research also indicates among various strategic IT issues in the future, Bangladesh MBs indicate interest in technologies like groupware/ workflow and imaging/ document management.

As a general rule, Bangladesh MBs prefer rack-mounted servers, followed by tower servers. Usage of blade servers is least popular due to high initial cost. This indicates that these MBs are still not fully aware of the multiple advantages of the blade server such as higher computing power, greater space and energy savings. It also indicates an opportunity for vendors to educate these companies on the advantages and uses of various server types.

AMI has discovered that server adoption is nearing full saturation within the largest Bangladesh MBs (500-999 employees). But there remains substantial white space and latent opportunity for first-server purchases within smaller and mid-sized MBs, or the 100–499 employee firms. A considerable percentage of the latter (almost three-in-ten) do not yet possess any server. Further, the planned propensity of acquiring servers is also relatively higher within this segment. Consequently, this space should be on the radar of most of the server vendors (both global and local) wishing to establish a presence in the Bangladesh market.

Related Studies

AMI-Partners - India has conducted the following studies exploring IT adoption in Bangladesh “2011-12 Bangladesh Medium Business Market Opportunity Assessment” and “2011-12 Bangladesh Large Business Market Opportunity Assessment.” These studies track a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to the adoption and usage of information technology and communications (ICT) solutions. Products and services covered in these studies include Computing, Networking, Software, Internet, Services, Storage and Security. Further, the studies encompass detailed firmographics, critically important technology attitudes, and strategic planning priorities.

For more information about these studies, e-mail njalan@ami-partners.com.

For more information about our other studies, AMI-Partners, or our global SMB research, call 212-944-5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com.