New Innovations Help to Drive Business VoIP

The market for business VoIP is rapidly expanding. In fact, it’s estimated that nearly $375 billion will be spent on business VoIP and unified communications over the next four to five years as companies adopt solutions that reduce costs and increase efficiencies.

To that end, nearly 20 percent of all new IP PBX service is part of a package deal, or bundled services from telecoms, according to this UC Strategies report. While it will likely continue to be the hosted services that will drive the business market, it’s expected that SIP trunking and UC services will also be a part of the force driving the business VoIP market.

Other areas of the industry are taking note of this growth. Analysts are seeing enterprise agents, resellers, system integrators and PBX/UC vendors jumping on the bandwagon. The traditional service providers and operators are the backbone of the business VoIP growth, as are the SIP trunking and hosted UC vendors. 

But the UC solutions available today haven’t converted everyone – there are still executives on the fence, unsure of how they can fully integrate the solution in an enterprise communication system. However, the UC market has seen some healthy growth among companies of all sizes. The drivers behind this growth are the inherent features of business VoIP, which offer more and cost less.

A traditional communications system simply no longer meets the needs of the business user today. Business VoIP brings a multitude of services, from video conferencing to interactive voice response solutions that a traditional PBX can’t offer. The growth in the UC-capable market has already shown remarkable growth. In 2011, the industry saw a $12 billion increase over the previous year. 

Web conferencing is the main driver behind that growth, according to some analysts. Collaboration is also an area of business VoIP and UC that will continue to drive growth, which could hit near 20 percent increases annually in the near future. The solutions available today help to reduce or eliminate travel expenses, allowing global companies to do more with less.

And, while the adoption of UC solutions is growing in the U.S., other companies are jumping on board as well. India is jumping into the UC market, which is helping to expand the increased growth of UC and business VoIP. Australia is also rapidly adopting UC and business VoIP as companies of all sizes leverage key innovations that free available funds for other projects. The inclusion of those two companies alone is expected to push the percentage points upward.

Companies are learning, one by one, that business VoIP is more than just a replacement for the traditional phone line. After years of being charged extra for what the phone company referred to as “add-ons,” businesses are becoming spoiled by the feature-rich components of basic business VoIP, which offers much more at a lower cost than the businesses could ever get from their traditional PBX.


Edited by Jamie Epstein