TMCnews Featured Article

The Unified Communications market in New Zealand is set to grow to $212.2 million by 2017, according to a new report by Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert).

The growth in Unified Communications will be driven by the demand for conferencing, collaboration, e-mail and mobility solutions.

Between 2010 and 2009, the Unified Communications (News - Alert) market in New Zealand experienced a 1.2 percent decline in market value due to a slow recovery from the downturn, cautious business spending and longer sales cycles, Frost & Sullivan said in its report.

“The continuing need for cost savings given the slow economic recovery has been the major driver for government deployments, while the BFSI and professional services segments are primarily turning to UC for productivity and competitive gains,” said Audrey William, ICT research director, Australia and New Zealand, Frost & Sullivan.“A number of major banks and legal firms, for example, have deployed videoconferencing solutions to reduce travel costs and improve internal collaboration.”

Government, banking and financial services institutions (BFSI) and professional services led the adoption of UC in 2010.

Though BFSI accounts for more than 70 percent of the year's UC revenues, these verticals are approaching saturation point for traditional applications such as enterprise telephony, e-mail and instant messaging. Future growth within these sectors will mainly come from infrastructure refreshes and uptake of mobility, conferencing and collaboration solutions like telepresence.

In addition, the recent earthquakes in Christchurch have affected the business spending in South Island. Non-essential IT spending is expected to be minimal in the year ahead as investment is focused on rebuilding essential platforms, according to Frost & Sullivan.

Most government bodies and businesses will focus on rebuilding their communications infrastructure. Frost & Sullivan predicts that significant deployments of telephony, e-mail and contact centers will be required as organizations replace their damaged or ageing infrastructures with up-to-date, advanced versions and that this will drive revenues for many UC vendors.

Recently, research from Ovum (News - Alert) found that the implementation of unified communications applications among companies that use IP telephony is showing great prospect in China, even as IP telephony adoption has not picked momentum in the country.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.