Hosted PBX Featured Articles

Hosted private branch exchange (PBX) phone systems are on the upswing, and the biggest area of growth is enterprise-level organizations, according to a recent report from Infonetics (News - Alert) Research.

That’s good news for hosted PBX and unified communications (UC) providers who have invested in cloud-based product offerings that appeal to larger organizations.

“While sales of premises-based PBX (News - Alert) systems have been stagnant to declining over the past few years, the market for cloud services continues to expand with businesses worldwide seeking out hosted alternatives,” said Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC and IMS at Infonetics Research (News - Alert).  “Hosted services seats grew more than 20 percent worldwide in 2013.”

According to the research company’s “Business Cloud VoIP and UC Services” report, cloud PBX and UC services will become a $12 billion market by 2018. Revenue for hosted PBX and UC is poised to grow 13% this year alone.

“What we are seeing today is that service providers are aggressively moving their UC offerings up-market, as advancements in underlying telephony application servers and cloud infrastructure availability make it possible to deliver hosted, mobile UC services capable of meeting the needs of large enterprises,” explained Leslie Ferry, VP of Marketing, BroadSoft, in an article for RCR Wireless (News - Alert).

“As a result of the ability to leverage the cloud, an increasing number of these large organizations have started to deploy cloud-based unified communications services such as voice, video, instant messaging and presence, conferencing and collaboration to thousands of users enterprise-wide,” Ferry continued.

Myers suggests that one of the biggest challenges for businesses evaluating hosted solutions are the wide variety of options available. Providers are fragmented as more hosted PBX and UC vendors, enterprise agents, system integrators, and resellers expand into the market and compete with traditional service providers.

Enterprise-level organizations are attracted to hosted PBX and UC services that suit their increasingly mobile workforce. For example, Ferry explains, most companies want one number that reaches an employee at a desk phone and a mobile device, enabling their employees to work from anywhere.

“For cloud-based UC to continue its move up-market, vendors and service providers must effectively communicate to enterprise IT decision makers why the benefits of cloud-based UC justify the costs of deploying this type of solution,” Ferry explained. “Evidence suggests enterprises are ready for cloud-based UC; now it is up to service providers to deliver compelling solutions that meet the needs of the large enterprise.”