Small Businesses Want Managed Wi-Fi Services, Study Suggests

A new study by iGR suggests as many as 64 percent of 12 million small to medium enterprises could be “very interested” in Wi-Fi as a service.

“There’s a growing interest from enterprises in network as a service in order to reduce capital expenditures and take advantage of IT outsourcing,” said Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR. “The research we conducted for KodaCloud shows that the great majority of enterprises with 100 or more employees would outsource Wi-Fi because they want to focus on the core business, or lack the IT capability in house.”

Some 64 percent of larger SMBs (over 200 employees) and 61 percent of medium SMBs (100-199) would prefer to outsource information technology chores, if they could.

The study suggests 60 percent of small SMBs provide Wi-Fi to employees only, while 35 percent of such firms supply Wi-Fi access to both employees and customers.

In addition to the cost of enterprises buying Wi-Fi equipment, the cost associated with managing Wi-Fi was estimated to be between $27 to $30 per access point per month.

KodaCloud’s managed Wi-Fi service makes it easy to buy Wi-Fi as a service at a flat rate of $100 for a network of four access points, or $300 to $400 for networks of 12 to 16 access points.

Recurring management fees run about $150 to $225 yearly.

$300-400 for a network of 12-16 Access Points addresses the needs of several hundred thousand of medium sized businesses.

In many cases, up to 65 percent of SMBs also show significant interest in other managed services beyond Wi-Fi.

By some estimates, the managed services market will grow from $145.33 billion in 2016 to $242.45 billion by 2021, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.8 percent.

That forecast includes spending on managed data center services and also managed mobility.

source: Infonetics