Ovum’s Trends to Watch: Unified Communications

Analyst firm Ovum sees four trends having the biggest impact on the Unified Communications (UC) market in 2015.

In its 2015 Trends To Watch: Unified Communications (UC) report, it notes: “Large enterprises and SMEs are turning to new ways of purchasing, deploying, and managing business communications technology, and cloud-based communications services are among the root causes of this transformation.”

We are definitely seeing this in the market and in our business. Cloud has changed how enterprises large and small procure, deploy, and manage their communications services. In its four trends, Ovum outlines some big opportunities in the UC space and some things that we see shaping enterprises, channel partners and our own business.

Here are Ovum’s 4 Trends to Watch in UC with our take on how they are playing out in the market:

1. The market for UC solutions is, and will remain, diverse, despite consolidation

There are a lot of options for enterprises when evaluating the best UC solutions for their businesses. This why we believe the IT channel has large and growing opportunities to help enterprises navigate these solutions and find the right ones for them.

2. Hosted UC services are becoming mainstream, particularly among large enterprises

We saw hosted UC services enter the mainstream in 2014 and this will definitely continue. The business case is too strong for hosted UC to be ignored. It offers enterprises the flexibility to change and grow without making heavy demands for capex. It fits today’s enterprises and we will see it continue to be embraced as a mainstream technology. 

3. Video conferencing is becoming ubiquitous

Video conferencing is really the last piece of the puzzle for enterprises that want to offer their employees better ways to communicate and make their communications more productive. The technology is maturing and enterprises have seen the use case proven.

4. Hosted video conferencing is undergoing a transformation as providers introduce new services and revamp existing ones

For CoreDial, the transformation is about enabling providers to sell, deliver, manage and invoice these new services and add capabilities to their offerings. The partnership model is by far the fastest and most efficient way to develop new services and monetize them. As Ovum notes the better video conferencing is integrated with other communications services, the better the experience within the enterprise. This is where the partnership model can be extremely effective.

Overall, these trends are about change in the UC market and all of these changes are positive. More services are getting into the hands of enterprise users and communications is driving productivity. Cloud services will increase efficiency for both channel partners as well as their customers. UC is a healthy and growing market where transformation means further innovation.