I like the CompTIA study reports because they cover a broad technology spectrum well. Today, they're announcing the results of their Fifth Annual Convergent Technologies Benchmarking Research Study. According to the study, more than one-third of SMB end-users in the U.S. anticipate a 10 percent to 20 percent growth in their spending on telecom and network services for next year.

The study also found that more than three-quarters of both U.S. and Canada SMBs have not had any major network attack or security breach in the last twelve months. More of the key findings from the research are included below.

CompTIA's Fifth Annual Convergent Technologies Benchmarking Research Study:
Discovering Trends and Opportunities in the U.S. and Canada SMB Markets

About the Study
The SMB market is a major area of growth today. What should providers of Convergent Technology solutions know about the SMB end-user market? In order to answer this question, CompTIA commissioned AMI-Partners, a market intelligence firm that focuses on tracking the SMB IT Market, to conduct a study on the Convergent Technologies market. Findings from this in-depth study of 518 SMB respondents will help you capitalize on this market.

Extensive analysis was conducted to identify the greatest areas of opportunity. The sample of SMB end-users (companies with 20-499 employees), represent a mix of industries, including government, financial, manufacturing and healthcare. Detailed results provide information on topics including SMB attitudes and perceptions, the current state and future of convergent technologies, purchase spending and decision-making, and purchase behavior and channels.

Sample of Key Findings

• A vast majority of SMBs are neither early adopters nor significant laggards. They typically tend to wait until the technology is proven in the market with a justifiable ROI, before making any major technology investments.
• Improved productivity and efficiency followed by cost savings emerged as top purchase drivers for converged solutions among businesses that are planning to invest in these solutions within years.
• More than one-half of SMBs in the U.S. and Canada that are planning to adopt some type of converged solutions indicate the need for a small network upgrade to support such solutions. And more than two-thirds agree with the importance of a network assessment on a periodic basis.
• More than three-quarters of both U.S. and Canada SMBs have not had any major network attack or security breach in the last twelve months. However, those that suffered a security attack experienced a significant-to-moderate impact on downtime due to delays. Typically, these attacks happen every month or bi-monthly in the U.S. and 3-6 times a year in Canada.
• In the U.S., more than one-third of SMB end-users anticipate a 10%-20% growth in their spending on telecom and network services for next year. Canadian SMBs expect less than 10% growth.
• Customer references and word-of-mouth are the most important sources of information in influencing and guiding SMBs purchase decision-making process for IT and communication systems.