UC surge offers service opportunity

Businesses across Europe are taking a closer look at unified communications (UC) and collaboration tools as environmental, financial and business considerations drive interest in the technology, research has found.

Analyst IDC unveiled the results of its WAN Manager Survey at its UC and Collaboration Conference in London this month.

A year ago, 45 per cent of European companies had not considered UC adoption, but this has fallen to just 24 per cent.

More than 30 per cent of firms are planning to deploy the technology at some point, up from less than 20 per cent in 2008. IDC research director Chris Barnard said: “This is a $13bn (£7.9bn) market and a significant part of that opportunity is professional services and consultancy.”

IP PBX adoption has rocketed up in the last two years. More than half of firms now use the technology, up from less than a quarter in 2007.

Roosmarijn Cornelissen, IDC European telecommunication and networking analyst, said: “Many companies see this as a first step on the path to UC. Hosted IP PBXs are also becoming popular.”

High-end growth

Upmarket kit such as high-end videoconferencing is also enjoying growth, with 14 per cent of companies already having invested. A further 37 per cent plan to do so.

Security remains the top driver for network spending, with respondents rating it as 3.8 out of five on the scale of importance.

Simplifying network structure and improving application performance on the WAN both scored 3.4, while voice and data convergence is ranked 3.1 and UC was rated as three.

Barnard claimed UC will have a significant impact on the vendor landscape. “There has been significant activity in terms of acquisitions,” he said.

“Everyone is gearing up for battle and we will see significant interaction between companies that, in the past, were very much doing their own things.”

One such alliance is between HP and Microsoft, which announced a four-year UC and collaboration partnership earlier this year.

HP’s IP communications lead Tim Banks said: “There have been commitments both ways and joint investment in research and development.”

Channel in control

Microsoft’s Office Server Group manager Peter King claimed the channel should ensure it allows end users to set the agenda when it comes to UC adoption.

“We will live in a hybrid world for a long time,” he said.

“Too many technology implementations fail where users are not involved right from the start.”

Banks added that UC adoption had become imperative for many organisations.

“Two years ago UC was misunderstood,” he said. “A year ago, people were starting to understand. Now, people are really starting to think about doing it and that has come about out of necessity.”