SME uptake of IP telephony gathers pace

Businesses are experiencing the benefits of IP adoption as the technology becomes popular with the masses

Increased SME uptake has driven the number of IP PBX desktop extensions installed in the UK to 40 per cent of all installations in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Research by consultancy firm MZA revealed the figure is up from 33 per cent during the same period last year. In total, almost 750,000 PBX extensions were installed in the UK during 2007’s closing quarter, up 16 per cent on 2006.

In businesses with less than 100 extensions, IP implementations now account for 20 per cent of all installations. For companies with upwards of 100 extensions, IP installations represented 65 per cent of all deployments, according to MZA.

Duncan Clark, research analyst at MZA, said: “Although the UK market increased in 2007, the enterprise sector began to flatten out, so much of the growth came from the below-100 extensions market.”

But Clark added there could still be barriers to SMEs adopting IP telephony. “A major obstacle is still the cost for smaller organisations. It is much harder to demonstrate the return on investment and business benefits to these firms,” he said.

The UK’s leading PBX manufacturer is Cisco, MZA claimed, followed by Nortel, then Avaya, which slipped from the second spot in the third quarter. Panasonic led the less than 100 extensions category, with Nortel a close second. Cisco remained on top in the more than 100 extensions category.

John Howard, channel sales director at Avaya, said: “Vendors are very close when comparing quarter by quarter results. You have to look across 12 months to get a real idea.”

Howard also hailed his company’s recent addition of Rocom to its stable of SME distributors. “The move will give us additional penetration in the SME market,” he said. “The market will revolve around IP. A lot of the resellers are traditional telecoms resellers but the data systems resellers are moving into that environment and it is all starting to come together.”

Dave Millett, operations director for voice over IP specialist Inclarity, agreed with the research: “The adoption of IP is starting to cascade down from the large corporations.”