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UC solutions accounted for nearly 60
percent of the overall market share in
2015 owing to the ease of customiza-
tion and control they offer.
“Moreover, such solutions bring in
a sense of security within the organi-
zation as critical business infrastruc-
ture resides in-house curtailing on
security concerns,” the report noted.
“However, such systems require ad-
equate maintenance and well-trained
IT staff, thereby adding to their opera-
tional expenses.”
Hosted unified communications
systems on the other hand accounted
for near 40 percent of the overall UC
market revenue share in 2015 and
is projected to overtake on-premises
systems over the forecast period, ac-
cording to Grand View.
This is a trend that’s echoed
by others.
“Development of cloud-based/
hosted and cloud technology systems
is expected to drive the market,” Hexa
Research noted in a recent report.
“They are easier to maintain, faster
and offers flawless scaling abilities
and decrease capital expenditure.”
Businesses’ ongoing move to
the cloud is meanwhile driving uni-
fied communication as a service
(UCaaS). Intense Research pointed
out that after a successful imple-
mentation of software as a service
(SaaS) for, say, CRM purposes,
many organizations are more open
to transitioning their mission-critical
communications to the same model
to capitalize on the no-capex, pay-as-
you-grow benefit of eliminating the
need for high upfront investment.
Mobility, a Driving Factor
Increasing enterprise and work-
force mobility will be the important
factors leading the global unified com-
munications market to attain revenue
of more than $75.5 billion by 2020.
The rising penetration of smart-
phones will augment demand for
UC products, thanks to the fact that
smartphones represent the easiest
medium to use the services offered
by UC technologies. The increasing
acceptance of bring your own device
(BYOD), development of UCaaS and
growing usage of mobile devices on a
global level are expected to boost the
market growth during the next five
years, Hexa Research said.
And, even though high initial
costs for such solutions and interop-
erability issues are presumed to
challenge growth (and in the U.S.,
ambiguous VoIP-related regulations
by the FCC may affect the industry
dynamics in the coming years), in
the globalized corporate world, work-
force mobility has increased mani-
fold, and UC allows easy connectivity
to individuals anytime, anywhere.
Increasing usage of high speed
broadband and availability of wireless
connectivity networks is also expected
to drive the UC market during the fore-
cast period, Hexa Research said. Ad-
vancements of technology such as 4G
and, soon, 5G are also expected to
witness substantial growth during the
next few years. Conversely, a lack of
robust telecommunications infrastruc-
ture, particularly in the emerging
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Vision
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September - October, 2016