VoIP technologies are part of enterprise communications products and services that include fixed mobile convergence (FMC), contact center, IP/TDM PBX (News - Alert), messaging, and conferencing and collaboration. And, enterprises are ramping up their investments in VoIP technologies, both on customer premises equipment and hosted VoIP, according to new data from ABI Research.
In one of its new report entitled “Enterprise Communications Market Data,” ABI indicated that the unified communications (UC) infrastructure market will reach $4.8 billion by 2015. The integrated UC suites market, which was adversely affected by recession, is also poised to see some consistent growth.
The report provides worldwide as well as regional shipment, ASP and revenue forecasts for the VoIP market including premises-based telephony, hosted business VoIP services, VoIP integrated access and SIP trunking.
Apart from VoIP, the report also includes forecasts for other unified communications technologies in the categories of fixed-mobile convergence, contact centers, messaging, and conferencing and collaboration.
According to the report, there has been a competitive environment between CPE vendors and hosted VoIP service providers. This has contributed to overall VoIP revenue growth. In addition, both CPE vendors and hosted VoIP service providers are using product differentiation, attractive pricing, and improved customer service to win and keep customers.
However, hosted VoIP services in North America specifically are buoyed by an additional set of drivers such as the slow economic recovery, employee mobilization, and a more distributed workforce.
Dan Shey (News - Alert), practice director for ABI Research, said in a press release, “Hosted VoIP is a ‘safe investment’ and offers flexibility for businesses in a slow, uncertain economic recovery. Consequently, hosted IP PBX services are expected to finish the year with a 15.3 percent increase in revenue to $3.4 billion, worldwide. Besides North America, Asia-Pacific will also be aggressive with hosted VoIP deployments.”
Subha Rama, senior analyst for ABI Research (News - Alert), said in a statement, “Even large businesses that traditionally shied away from hosted services for mission-critical communications are deploying hybrid models, experimenting with hosted services in smaller doses.”
As enterprise communications systems converge on the IP platform, IP telephony shipments will also continue to see robust growth in the coming years. According to the report, PBX vendors are expected to ship more than 35 million IP lines including native IP and hybrid lines worldwide during 2010.
Jayashree Adkoli is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Jayashree's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by
Tammy Wolf
