Unified communications (UC) markets are poised for growth as technologies mature and businesses recognise the value of integrating disparate communications and collaboration technologies, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, World Unified Communications Markets, found that the installed base of fully-integrated UC users in 2009 was about 2 million and is expected to reach 50 million by 2015.
The firm expects vendors to continue to aggressively promote UC clients to their customer base, creating opportunities for future application integration, over the next five to six years.
According to Frost & Sullivan, growing adoption of session initiation protocol (SIP) and service-oriented architecture (SOA), application enablement technologies, and vendor strategies focused on contextually rich communications and communications-enabled business processes will have a major impact on vendor interoperability.
The report noted that improving technology standardisation and openness will help application integration and UC implementation. The pool of UC-related professional services skills will expand, both within customer organisations and among vendors and their channel partners, and will facilitate UC adoption.
Currently, fully integrated UC implementations are driven mostly by vendors offering a one-stop shop for all UC components and related services. Multi-vendor implementations are typically constrained by limited vendor interoperability, the cost of integrating disparate applications, and the limited availability of required professional services skills.
Melanie Turek, principal analyst for unified communications and collaboration at Frost & Sullivan, said: By itself, UC may not be a major source of additional revenue for communications vendors. However, it offers the potential to drive growth in related markets and encourages companies to upgrade their equipment sooner than they might otherwise.
