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UC market set to weather economic storm in UK

IDC study predicts impressive annual growth for collaboration solutions and hosted services

The EMEA unified communications and collaboration (UCC) market is projected to grow to an annual worth of $16.6bn (£10.6bn) by 2015.

A study conducted by IDC predicts an annual growth rate of around 23.7 per cent over the next five years, although the impact of the credit crunch will lead enterprises to be more cautious when deciding to invest in new IT equipment, claimed the analyst.

The largest UCC markets in western Europe by 2015 are expected to be France, followed by the UK and Germany. IDC predicted this would be because of the higher levels of UCC services sold to end users in these countries.

Isabel Montero, senior research analyst at IDC EMEA, said: "Instability in various countries within the CEMA (central and eastern Europe the Middle East and Africa) region, as well as inadequate infrastructure and bandwidth issues will continue to play a key role in inhibiting new UCC services sold to these countries."

Demand for new communications functionality is expected to be driven by innovation on the consumer side, leading to collaboration between major vendors, partners and customers.

IDC also reported that use of hosted services will be on the rise later in the forecast period, noting that the trend would be more profound in small and midsize businesses.

"However, we do expect higher volumes of shipments to be sold with regards to premises-based UCC equipment," Montero added.