Frost: Unified Communications Sees Strong Growth
June 26, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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Enterprise communications today are enabled by a multitude of devices - desk phones, mobile phones, laptops - through a variety of networks - voice, data, wireless.
According to Frost & Sullivan, chief information officers (CIOs) everywhere realize the power of unified communications (UC) in eliminating the inefficiencies in enterprise communications by streamlining and unifying the disparate tools available to users.
Recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan of the Asia-Pacific UC market found earned revenues of $4.03 billion in 2007, with estimates to reach $8.17 billion by the end of 2014, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.6% (2007-2014).
The UC market is forecasted to grow by 13% in 2008 to reach revenues of $4.55 billion by the end of this year, analysts said. Much of this immediate growth is expected to come from telephony upgrades, Internet protocol (IP) telephony migration and e-mail upgrades embedded with UC applications.
In the longer term, applications such as conferencing and collaboration, mobility and presence or instant messaging are expected to be the growth drivers for greater UC adoption, analysts said.
"With globalization and the Internet having a significant impact on enterprises and the level of competition they face, the need for enterprises to be agile and quick to respond is critical," said Frost & Sullivan industry manager Shivanu Shukla. "The need for communications to be at the forefront of this transition is a reality that CIOs across the region are beginning to heed."
Shukla said that the ability for the growing mobile workforce to have access to company communications applications while away from the office environment is seen as a high priority.
Some of the early adopters of UC tools are large enterprises with more than 250 users and distributed offices throughout the region. "Distributed teams in multiple locations, cities and countries have increased the need for collaboration within enterprises. Consumer collaboration trends with Web 2.0 technologies are also influencing enterprise collaboration techniques," said Shukla.
The biggest challenge for UC adoption, analysts said, is measuring productivity gains and quantifying return on investments (ROIs). This is further compounded by the uncertainty of interoperability of the various UC applications.
Analysts said initial deployments are expected in phases of one to two UC applications, instead of one-time investments. Rollouts within organizations are also expected in phases, starting with IT teams, senior executives and mobile workers, rather than company-wide implementations.
Key growth markets with reasonable early deployments include Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, analysts said, while markets such as India and China offer clear potential for wider UC uptake, especially for bundled UC applications.
Source: Frost & Sullivan.