Singapore businesses beefing up web usage

Majority of businesses using hosted applications and moving on to higher bandwidth speeds for Internet connections.

Pacnet, Asia's leading business telecommunications service provider, on Monday released its 2010 Broadband Barometer survey findings for Singapore, which showed a high percentage of hosted applications usage among Singapore small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and a growing sophistication in their planned hosted application usage.

The survey found that hosted security applications were the most popular category of hosted applications among Singapore SMEs, with 9 out of 10 SMEs having deployed at least one hosted security application in 2010. Among the security applications deployed, 89% of SMEs had deployed a hosted firewall or intrusion detection solution, according to a Pacnet report.

Interestingly, while the survey found that 29% of SMEs have deployed at least one hosted business application, 32% more indicated their intention to deploy a hosted business application next year. Other hosted applications that SMEs indicated their interest in deploying next year include server virtualization, which was flagged by 43% of SMEs, and 35% said they will deploy hosted data backup solutions next year.

"The high adoption rate of hosted solutions certainly validates the trend that we are seeing in the demand for hosted applications," noted Jacques Grezaud, Managing Director, Pacnet Singapore and Indonesia. "More importantly, many SMEs have indicated their intention to adopt more advanced hosted applications, indicating to us that a significant number SMEs here are ready to move 'into the cloud' to realize the benefits that include a low upfront investment and pay-per-use pricing."

"We have definitely seen increased adoption of ICT applications among our members, especially among those who have been expanding their businesses beyond Singapore," said Stephen Lim, Technology Committee Chairman, Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI). "SMEs are recognizing that deploying new hosted applications need not be complex or expensive, but yet, have a positive impact on their businesses. However, their challenge remains with the evaluation and selection of suitable solution and vendors."

Findings from the Pacnet Broadband Barometer also revealed that Internet access is now ubiquitous among SMEs in Singapore -- with 95% of businesses with 5 to 999 employees having Internet access. According to AMI Partners, these SMEs (5-999 employees) in Singapore are expected to spend in excess of US$138 million (S$193 million) on Internet access in 2010, and the majority of this is expected to be on broadband Internet access.

The study has also reported a continued rise in the adoption of higher Internet speeds by companies of all sizes. Compared to a similar study conducted by Pacnet in 2006 where the most common connection speed was 512 Kbps, the latest study found that the most common connection speed has moved up to the 2 to 10 Mbps category.

"Additionally, while penetration rates are still lower compared to Hong Kong, especially in the higher speed ranges of 25-100 Mbps and above 100 Mbps, this may noticeably increase after the completion of the government's Next Generation National Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) fiber network," said Dr. Vu-Thanh Nguyen, Research Analyst, AMI Partners, Asia Pacific.

The survey also found that businesses had a generally positive response to the impact of the government's Next Gen NBN project, which promises to enable consumers and businesses with high speed broadband through a national fiber optic network. The study found that 69% of respondents felt that the project will or could provide better access to public information, while 67% felt that it will or could improve business productivity. 62% of the respondents also felt that the project will or could lower the cost of Internet access for businesses.

Singapore SMEs also led in their support for remote Internet access for their employees. The study found that some 34% of SMEs in Singapore already support remote Internet access, higher than Australia, Hong Kong, mainland China and India, while another 40% said that they plan to support remote Internet access in 2011.

"Enabling employees who need to be on the move with remote access empowers them to continue to be productive even from home and Singapore SMEs are obviously recognizing the benefits of this," noted Mr Grezaud. Not surprisingly, email was the top application among employees using remote Internet access.

As part of the study, the Pacnet Broadband Barometer Index was compiled to reflect the state of Internet development among businesses in a country. The higher the score, the more savvy businesses in the country are to broadband and its applications. Among the five countries surveyed, Singapore came in second with a score of 77, behind Australia at 82 and ahead of Hong Kong at 72.

"The maturity and the adoption of hosted business applications are the primary reasons why Singapore has seen a higher score than some of the other Asian countries," said Venu Reddy, Vice President, AMI Partners, Asia Pacific. "This is expected to continue to increase as the companies in Singapore see greater number of choices and solutions that meet their business application needs," he added.

Pacnet commissioned Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc., a leading consulting firm specializing in IT and telecoms to conduct the Pacnet Broadband Barometer survey across Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India and Singapore. In Singapore, the survey involved phone interviews with 350 IT decision makers across the country during the period from January to April 2010.