Communications and Technology Industry Research

T3i Group, a provider of data, market research, analysis, and advisory services to the telecommunications sector, recently announced they are conducting a study on enterprise market demand for Unified Communications (News - Alert) (UC) applications.

 

The results of this study show that more than 60 percent of enterprises in the United States are reducing their spending on UC applications this year. This primary research study also found out that enterprises are making future plans for expansion though they have made important changes as regards to UC applications.

 

They have decided to reduce cost on implementing UC applications and Internet Telephony (News - Alert) (IP). Most of them have put IP implementation on hold by six percent and UC implementation by seven percent. In addition, they have made major reductions in implementation plans of IP by 18 percent and UC by 16 percent.

 

"Despite these cutbacks in 2008 spending, the enterprise decision-makers were actually more optimistic about their implementation of UC applications in the future," said Terry White, senior program director, T3i Group. "In our 2008 survey, U.S. enterprises expected equal or higher attach rates in 2012 for six out of the eight UC applications, compared to our 2007 survey results."

 

The research study conducted by White and published by T3i Group's InfoTrack division drew conclusions after the analysis of the market demand of nearly 200 enterprises that have more that 500 employees in eight categories of UC applications. The applications and the companies involved are Unified Messaging /Avaya's Modular Messaging, UC Client /IBM's Lotus Sametime, Web Conferencing /Cisco's (News - Alert) Unified MeetingPlace, IP Contact Center/Alcatel-Lucent's OmniGenesys Contact Center, Voice over Wireless LAN/Siemens' HiPath Mobile Connect, Desktop Videoconferencing/Avaya's Video Telephony Solution, Mobile UC Client/Microsoft's Mobile Office Communicator and Real Time Audio Conferencing /Mitel's (News - Alert) Quick Conference.

 

The study showed that web conferencing was the only UC application among medium-sized enterprises that had between 500 to 1,000 employees that had the highest increase in attach rates. The attach rate is the percentage of IP Telephony shipments that includes a specific UC application and was at a peak for Desktop Videoconferencing when the UC application of large enterprises was taken into consideration.

 

"Both U.S. and international enterprises are optimistic about their progression to the more advanced phases," White said. "Enterprise decision-makers clearly believe in the potential value of UC applications, but many are expecting their IP Telephony and UC Apps vendors to help them identify the best opportunities for realizing this potential value."