AMI-Partners forecasts growth in the VoIP market among small and medium businesses. Over 30% of small businesses (SBs, 1 – 99 employees) and 50% of medium businesses (MBs, 100-999 employees) say that VoIP will become critical to their business operations.

SMB decision-makers see benefit from VoIP in improved staff productivity, streamlined dispersed communications, and lower costs. “The last several years of recession caused many SMBs to put new technology purchases on hold,” according to Karen Nielsen, Senior Consultant with AMI. “Moving into 2011, cost savings, as well as the advanced features available with IP, will impel more and more SMBs to IP architecture implementation.”

Most SMBs have limited IT resources; they will rely heavily on channel partners for VoIP installation and turnover, and to help with the crossover from analog to digital. “The moment of conversion from analog to digital voice is the single biggest pain point for SMBs,” says Nielsen. “Suppliers and channel partners should be prepared to make this switchover seamless. Partners should also understand and be able to prove that economic benefits stem not only from lower ongoing costs but also from a lower TCO.”

From a supplier perspective, it is still early. The players are not fully known. The architectures are not completely defined. The markets are not structured. But AMI believes that down the road, the same things that are important to analog/TDM users will be important to digital/IP users: reliability, security, and quality. The winners will be those providers who can provide not only a reliable service, but an alternate back up, as well as the channel expertise to serve SMBs from soup to nuts if needed.