Big business with SMEs

While large and very large enterprises tend to split business between multiple service providers, nearly two out three SMEs prefer to purchase their communications services from a single source. Operators around the world have responded, with many offering bundles of services and communications products tailored specifically for this SME segment.

June 20, 2007

Urban Gillström, head of Enterprise at Ericsson, says: "Enterprises large and small want to improve their business performance, growth and productivity without sacrificing cost control or security. To achieve these goals, business users are a natural focal point."

Business users are spending less time in the office. Increasingly they are visiting their customers and suppliers, working at remote offices or even from home. For efficiency, collaboration and real time information, a clear mobility strategy becomes essential.

Gillström says: "We see mobilization of business processes and information as critical for improving business productivity. Unified communications, with the same interface and multimedia access from any device, anywhere and anytime, is essential."

Communications convergence began with voice and data, but progressed to include mobile and fixed line networks, private and public networks - driven by the needs and demands of mobile business users. Standards like session initiation protocol (SIP) and IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) are further enabling this convergence. And operators are now rolling out high-speed packet access (HSPA) into their 3G networks, making mobile broadband a reality for more people. Application developers are embracing the opportunities that these advances enable.
However, SMEs do not want many bewildering choices; nor do they want to immerse themselves in technological details. They do want to realize benefits of value-added services - like unified communications - with customer support from someone locally present that they can trust and rely upon. Studies show that this segment is ready and willing to contract service packages, so they can focus on their core business

Gillström says: "In a complex world, we can help our customers and partners to make things simpler and more focused. At Ericsson we will continually develop and improve the technology so that our customers and partners remain competitive. And we will continue to deliver solutions with a holistic view of mobility."