| CITING studies pointing to bigger IT spending by small businesses in the Asean region, communications product maker Nortel Networks Inc. has appointed a Filipino to lead its expansion moves.
Nortel is currently rolling out its products—some of them launched two years ago, some recently—for small businesses in member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations, according to Nortel Philippines Inc. executive Armando Pascual.
Pascual, director of the enterprise segment of Nortel’s Philippine business, told BusinessMirror that the firm initially had a soft launch of its five-element information technology products while its end-user launch began Wednesday in Makati City.
A launch would be held in Indonesia in the second quarter, followed by Thailand and Vietnam. Aside from these countries, Asean groups also include Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, and Myanmar.
Pascual said that the firm’s decision to move into the small and medium business market was based on studies that spending by these businesses would equalize or surpass spending of enterprises.
He didn’t cite figures but cited the study came from a Singapore-based research firm.
Last month, research and marketing company Access Markets International (AMI) Partners Inc. told BusinessMirror that spending by retail businesses having one to 999 employees would represent about five percent “of the total Asia/Pacific SMB (small and medium business) IT spend in 2007.”
The New York-headquartered firm said in a statement that across all industries and business types in the region, total IT spending this year would hit $95 billion.
Pascual said they define SMBs in the Philippines as having between 10 and a hundred employees and don’t have separate IT departments. “Their owners are also technically capable but want to grow their business using IT,” Pascual told reporters. He cited that one SMB would need basically a phone switch when starting up. “They need people to call them and call people.”
A Nortel 24-port switch is sold by a third-party distributor for P20,000 ($ 419.30 at US$1=P47.7).
The firm also sells a business communications manager to handle calls, Ethernet switches to link computers, and routers for SMBs moving to build branches or offices in other areas.
A basic connectivity structure that Nortel sells would go for a low P200,000 ($4,192.87) to a high of P300,000 ($6,289.30).
“Most people regard us as focused mostly on large enterprise solutions but actually we’re serious about the SMB segment,” Pascual said.
The seriousness in Nortel, he added, is expressed in the firm’s investment of a research and development team or a separate unit especially for this move in the SMB market.
Pascual was reportedly appointed to lead this team. Small and medium businesses account for more than 90 percent of the total businesses registered in the country, according to Philippine government data.
However, according to United Nations statistics, the business sector’s connection to the Internet and use of IT for growing business is not yet as fast as expected.
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