Enterprise VoIP

In a recent study, The Evolution of Enterprise VoIP, ABI Research (News - Alert) found that the day is coming soon when enterprise VoIP will become quite commonplace. While in-house VoIP remains solidly entrenched, hosted VoIP has not gotten as much traction as of yet.

 

The rising adoption of hosted enterprise VoIP is being driven by several factors. The swift pace of telecom technology change contributes, since it makes enterprise users hesitant about large-scale infrastructure investments.

 

ABI is predicting a 110 percent annual growth rate in hosted IP services for the enterprise sector in North America between 2006 and 2012, which translates to a jump from $136.8 million to $11.5 billion. Western Europe could see an increase from $113.3 million to $9.9 billion.

 

Enterprise IT managers are often concerned with the trend toward convergence, partly due to the belief that convergence will change the IT landscape, and also because enterprises may not necessarily possess the expertise to respond properly. Enterprise users have previously been able to devote enough resources to in-house telecom expertise, but in a converged world, that might no longer be the case.

 

The increasingly decentralized nature of the corporate world also contributes. “Headquarters” are being augmented, or even supplanted, by networks of satellite of branch or satellite locations over wide geographic areas. Such operations are ideal for VoIP. A typical branch location won’t have an IT professional or telecom expert. With a hosted solution, expert help can be delivered where it might not have been available otherwise.

 

And the rest of the world will likely not be far behind the United States. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to go from $73.4 million to $8.2 billion by 2012. While hosted enterprise VoIP in Eastern European might be at just $12.7 million today, even that sector is expected to grow to $1.5 billion by 2012.