North American Hosted IP Telephony and UC Services Market

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled North American Hosted IP Telephony and UC Services Market provides a perspective on the factors driving and restraining market growth; installed base, price, and revenue forecasts; and a competitive analysis. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the following markets/applications/technologies: hosted IP telephony (hosted PBX and IP Centrex) and hosted unified communications (UC).

Market Overview

Increasing Complexity of Managing a Growing Number of Communication Tools Makes a Case for Hosted Services

Technology maturity as well as the emergence of new hosted/cloud platforms and business models are driving the uptake and services attach rate per user of hosted IP telephony and Unified Communication (UC) services. Voice over IP (VoIP) and IP telephony technologies now deliver availability, reliability, and quality of service (QoS) levels comparable to those of public switched telephone networks (PSTN). Private branch exchange (PBX) and UC vendors are introducing novel platforms that leverage virtualization to enable multi-instance communications. These types of solutions typically offers greater functionality and higher security levels, enabling providers to expand their reach into more demanding or security-conscious businesses.

Businesses looking to enhance employee productivity and gain a competitive advantage are using a wider variety of communications and collaboration tools including voice, messaging, conferencing and collaboration, social tools, and mobility. Deploying, integrating, and managing them on the premises is becoming both cost-prohibitive and technologically complex for the IT staff. Therefore, there is a growing preference for outsourcing communication solutions to reduce expenditure and more effectively focus on core business activities. “Furthermore, the number of remote workers, including those regularly or frequently working from home, is increasing, giving rise to the virtual organization,” says the analyst of this research. “Hosted services enable businesses to more cost-effectively deliver and support a uniform set of capabilities across geographically dispersed users.”

However, the large installed base of unamortized investment in premises-based solutions and continued customer reluctance to relinquish control over their communications infrastructure will curtail the demand for hosted communications from 2012 to 2018. It will be a while before businesses start adopting hosted services for their less tangible benefits such as the flexibility to adjust both capacity and features according to actual demand.

Market Sectors:

• Hosted IP Telephony
• Hosted Unified Communications (UC)

Technologies:

• Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
• IP Telephony
• Unified Communications (UC)