Continuing our research focus on Unified Communications (News - Alert) (UC), our latest decision maker survey conducted in partnership with IntelliCom Analytics took a closer look at enterprise preferences for Web conferencing solutions.

 

Following up on our February research findings that showed that enterprises expect to be making broad use of Web conferencing applications by the end of this year, we were interested in understanding business preferences for the different types of Web conferencing solutions — whether premises-based approaches that are available from desktop or voice application providers such as Microsoft (News - Alert) or Avaya, or hosted solutions such as WebEx that can be purchased on an enterprise-wide site license basis or acquired locally by specific work groups or individual end-users.

 

With more than 700 responses coming in from all Global Regions, the findings show that for all businesses worldwide, there is a strong preference (45 percent in North America and 44percent in EMEA, APAC and CALA) for premised-based desktop Web conferencing solutions such as Microsoft LiveMeeting or Lotus Sametime.

 

The second strongest showing was for hosted Web conferencing approaches such as Cisco’s (News - Alert) WebEx service that are procured for all enterprise end-users on a site license basis rather than purchased locally. Unlike the nearly identical preference for desktop solutions in all Global Regions, however, the enterprise-wide hosted approach is more favored by North American-based businesses (at 32 percent) than in the other Global Regions (at 25 percent). Conversely, premises-based solutions from voice applications providers as well as locally-chosen hosted approaches both showed stronger responses in EMEA, APAC and CALA than in NAR.