UC is transforming business communications

More Australian businesses are adopting modern communications options, including cloud services, transforming traditional voice calls into unified communications, according to new research from Telsyte.

Most organisations (88%) have staff that use a softphone at least once a week and Skype is the most popular application, well ahead of softphones that vendors ship with their PABX systems.

A further 40% of organisations are evaluating docking solutions to enable mobile devices to act as a desk phone replacement while in the office.

There is also a shift in how enterprise communications services are being procured with Telsyte forecasting cloud communications - where the customer does not own or manage PABX equipment - will exceed 30% penetration by 2020.

This is being driven by more options from traditional telco and non-telco service providers and will represent a market value exceeding $650m.

The Australian Enterprise Communications Market Study 2015 examines the impact of emerging technologies on business communications and how organisations can prepare for future disruption.

Telsyte Senior Analyst Rodney Gedda says organisations need to find the best ways to integrate services for holistic enterprise communications that will increasingly involve mobile devices and wearables.

“Instant messaging, presence and email integration are the most deployed unified communications (UC) applications, but web collaboration and BYOD integration are becoming more important as organisations look to modernise their business and support next-generation employees,” Gedda says.

Telsyte forecasts UC to grow strongly in 2015 as organisations look to refresh both legacy TDM and IP-based infrastructure.

“CIOs know UC can reduce costs, which is a key driver; however, UC is increasingly [being used] as a path to optimising IT and enhancing business flexibility. This indicates a marked change from communications being seen as a cost centre to more of a productivity platform.”

Less than 5% of Australian enterprises are ‘mobile only’ and don’t have fixed line infrastructure; however, these organisations can still take advantage of unified communications through fixed-mobile convergence and cloud services.

The Australian Enterprise Communications Market Study 2015 covers the key vendors and service providers in the communication and collaboration market including: AAPT, Alcatel-Lucent, Amcom, Apple, Avaya, BlackBerry, Cisco Systems, Google, LifeSize, Macquarie Telecom, Microsoft, MyNetFone, Mitel, NEC, Optus, Polycom, ShoreTel, Siemens, Telstra, TPG, UXC Connect, Vidyo and WebEx.

Image courtesy Phillipe Put under CC.