What technology or vertical markets in 2009 have been key growth areas?
“Bearing in mind it has been a tough time for everyone, have there really been any new or exciting products in 2009? – I really can’t think of any. There has been lots of talk about Hosted IPT (Internet Protocol Telephony) and further convergence services, but in the main I think telecom carriers and resellers have been concentrating on their core business services. Broadband is still seeing huge growth as a product, and the future lies in surrounding broadband with value added services.
What technology/vertical markets have underperformed in 2009?
“O-bit’s product portfolio has remained constant and we have continued to push our services with equal measure. Higher end data services like leased lines and point-to-point network are suffering because of less expensive services offering similar bandwidths, but with less of an SLA. However at 10 per cent of the cost, most companies will take a very small risk to save large sums of money, especially in the current financial climate.
Predictions for 2010 - What areas do you expect to grow in 2010?
“For O-bit Telecom specifically, our ERP software AskMerlin is going to be huge. For the rest of the telecoms industry, there has been a lot of energy and focus on hosted IPT. O-bit has just launched its own offering Purple Networx, and we have already seen huge interest in it. We expect this to accelerate exponentially in the new year. Combine this with our ERP offering and 2010 is going to prove a phenomenal year for O-bit.
What trends do you expect to see in 2010?
“There is going to be much more emphasis on VARs. Clever and adaptable resellers will be able to offer customers a true end-to-end solution for a whole range of services, including broadband, data, hosted IPT and ERP software solutions as well as hosting servers and other services in the cloud. Clearly, these VARs will need to choose their suppliers very carefully.”