In the high-tech industry, most of the small and large scale companies want to adopt technologies that could cut their investment cost on business operation. According to research from IT analyst firm, AMI-Partners, growth is forecasted in the VOIP market among small and medium-size businesses.  

More than 30 percent of small businesses (1-99 employees) and 50 percent of midsize businesses (100-999 employees) said that voice over IP technology will become critical to their business operations.

In a statement, Karen Nielsen, senior consultant with AMI, said that the last several years of the recession caused many SMBs to put new technology purchases on hold and moving into 2011, cost savings, as well as the advanced features available with IP, will impel more and more SMBs to IP architecture implementation.

SMB decision-makers said they see benefit from VOIP in improved staff productivity, streamlined dispersed communications and lower costs.

According to the press release, AMI’s "2010 VoIP Update—U.S. SMB Market" report provides an analysis of VOIP usage by U.S. SMBs. AMI said it believes that the market for IP-based voice communications, i.e. VOIP and IP PBX (News - Alert), will eventually merge.

He added that the moment of conversion from analog to digital voice is the single biggest pain point for SMBs and suppliers and channel partners should be prepared to make this switchover seamless. He clarified that 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 and the last several years have been dogged by a difficult recession, and many SMBs put on hold technology decisions.

The report also concluded that, from a supplier perspective, it is still early and the major players are not fully known.