New BPO projects will be won from Asian customers through the provision of short term pilot projects first, then followed by long-term contracts after the BPO vendor proves capable of meeting the Asian customer's needs. This is a different model from the typical one to serve Western clients, who are more willing to transit to BPO based on compelling economics. The vendor-customer relationship is key to Asian clients, and BPOs will deliver this through service innovation in 2007.

6. Vendors chase the long tail in the SMB market

2007 will be marked by an aggressive focus from all major vendors to broaden and deepen their coverage of the SMB sector in the APEJ region. The region's SMB market has seen growth rates in recent years approaching 10%, with the SMB market breaking US$52 billion in 2007.

7. Services get caught in the wireless mesh

After much hype, 2007 will finally be the year where wireless mesh services will emerge in Asia. Existing deployments in Taipei will push Malaysia, Singapore, and others to champion their own metropolitan and regional networks, offering wide-area coverage and limited mobile voice over IP (VoIP) capability. IDC expects the wide-area metropolitan Wi-Fi market to double in 2007 to US$250 million.