Infonetics Research has published a new report that shows growth in the unified communications (UC) and IP contact center (IPCC) markets is outpacing the growth rate of the IP PBX (News - Alert) market.

 

According to this report, “Unified Communications and IP Contact Center Market Outlook” worldwide sales and unified communications applications increased 21 percent between 2005 and 2006, to $363 million and are expected to grow in the high double digits each year until at least through 2010.

 

In addition, worldwide sales of IP contact center applications, such as automatic call distribution (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR) and computer telephony integration (CRI) totaled $482 million in 2006, a 26 percent increase over 2005. The IPCC market is forecast to grow in the single digits to low double digits through at least 2010.

 

"The other topic getting a lot of attention these days is the IP contact center. The contact center market is well understood, and is undergoing a technology transition similar to the PBX market, from TDM to IP. That's causing the IPCC market to grow quite rapidly," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst at Infonetics Research, in a statement.

 

The report also found that unified messaging makes up the bulk of the unified communications market and although this market is still very young, growth is expected to be very strong due to its early stage and high demand.

 

Avaya led the worldwide unified messaging market in 2006, although its top competitors, including Nortel, Cisco and Alcatel (News - Alert)-Lucent are gaining share. Alcatel-Lucent was the market leader for worldwide communicator revenue in 2006, while Siemens and Avaya are neck and neck.

 

In the IP contact center market, Avaya (News - Alert) leads by far considering worldwide revenue, followed by Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel.

 

The growth in the IP contact center market is driven primarily by the perceived changes in the contact center’s role in the organization. More and more companies are gaining a better understanding of the value of the contact center in terms of customer loyalty and revenue growth. Combine this with consumer demand for increased communication options when contacting the center and the demand grows for next generation technologies to improve efficiencies.

 

Infonetics' report provides analysis of the UC and IPCC markets, an overview and definition of each market, select vendor market share, and worldwide and regional market size and forecasts through 2010 for unified communications, including unified messaging and communicator, and for IP contact centers (including ACD, IVR, and CTI). Regions studied include North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and CALA.

 

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.

 

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