Among small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to 999 employees) in Western European, France SMBs remain the third IT and telecom market after Germany and the United Kingdom, accounting for approximately 16 percent of all dollars spent in the region, according to market studies by AMI-Partners. SMBs in France closed the year by spending approximately US $34 billion to beef up their IT and telecom infrastructure and applications, up 5 percent over 2006.

The latest study from Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. reveals that security, storage, and networking experience the highest year-over-year growth showing a determination to become better connected while keeping data safe. In dollar amounts France SMBs spend the largest amount of their IT spending on computing and IT services such as development & integration and computing support to ensure higher efficiency and hence better business flow.

Small businesses (SBs, or companies with up to 99 employees) attach the highest importance to improving Internet or networking bandwidth/connection speed and managing customer relationships, retention and sales. Medium businesses (MBs, or companies with 100 to 999 employees) focus on using applications to manage production, storage, accounting & distribution and helping employees collaborate more effectively and productively through more advanced connectivity solutions’ adoption to facilitate safe communication with customers, suppliers and business partners.

“While SBs in France are still building their infrastructure, MBs have already started leveraging theirs by using technologies such as VPN, Intranet, and WAN (Wide Area Networks) to network with remote offices and offsite employees,” says Pauline Courtiau, New York-based Analyst at AMI-Partners.

SMBs in France feel that serving and retaining their customers is their top most challenge. “Also, French customers seem harder to please in comparison with their German and British counterparts,” Ms. Courtiau says. “In Germany and the U.K., most SMBs feel pleasing customers is their second toughest challenge, behind the intensity of competition.”

“Due to their small size France SBs often choose to run their business without any kind of IT management. This is most evident among SBs with fewer than 10 employees where more than three-fifths operate within an unmanaged IT environment” says Courtiau. “On the other hand, the majority of MBs are mostly unwilling to take that risk. Therefore, a good number of these MBs have at least one employee who manages the company’s IT infrastructure.”

The total cost of ownership and currently used brand names are top factors when it comes to the purchase of new products and services. Except for deciding technical configuration and specification, SBs owners and presidents play the leading role when IT purchases are made. Among MBs, in-house IT personnel are entrusted with configuration specifications and brand selection while professional and office managers identify the IT needs.

About these studies

AMI’s 2007 France Small Business Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity Assessment and 2007 France Medium Business Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity Assessment studies highlight these and other major trends in the context of current/planned IT, Internet and communications usage and spending. Products and services covered include established and emerging hardware, software, applications and business process solutions. Based on AMI’s annual surveys of SBs and MBs across France, the studies track a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to budgets, purchase behaviors, decision influencers, channel preferences, outsourcing, service and support. Also covered are detailed firmographics and critically important technology attitudes and strategic planning priorities. This data points to key opportunities and messaging hot buttons for vendors and service providers seeking to match their offerings to SB market requirements.

» Story on Analyst Firm Website

» Comments   Digg this    del.icio.us