In a recent webinar, UK-based IP-migration-focused research and consulting business, Cavell, revealed some exciting updates regarding their extensive, ongoing studies of current trends and services in the cloud communications market.
For the last 12-13 years, Cavell have been working with service providers and vendors, supplying them with valuable information on what markets are peaking and dipping in the present, and what markets are expected to grow/decline in the future.
In order to give our readership an overview of what Cavell have predicted will happen in the cloud communications market over the next few years, UC Today has written a detailed report that summarises everything that was discussed.
Cloud Communication Market & Trends
Cavell opened with the news that, for the first time in the UK, the cloud communications market has broken 3 million users with a growth rate of 300,000 in the last 6 months and just under 600,000 over the past year.
This rapid growth, they added, is the fastest they’ve ever recorded over such a period and is a clear indication of the impact cloud is having on the world of business as more and more companies embark on their digital transformation.
Driven largely by SMEs, the growth of cloud communications is mostly down to the vast number of providers successfully operating in that space and it is expected that 40% of seats in the market will be cloud users that have moved away from on-premises PBX services by 2022.
Another interesting point raised was that, in the UK market, BroadSoft has had the most success at securing seats in the SME market, while Cisco is leading the way up at large enterprise level. For the mid-markets, however, it was said that growth is nowhere near as high as the former two as the channels targeting it are still comfortable selling on-premises PBXs.
Future Development
Cavell then went on to explain what features are currently available from vendors on the market and how they are predicted to perform over the next 12 months.
First up were team collaboration apps that, rather surprisingly, are expected to remain fairly low on service providers offerings over the next year and aren’t expected to grow much at all. Though, they added, there are many reports of vendors building their own team collaboration tools for the future, a lack of certainty on their value in the current market appears to have put vendors off trying to sell them now.
The contact centre market, however, has grown rapidly with a high percentage of vendors bundling advanced contact centre solutions into their value-added services and Cavell predicts that it will play a significant role in the development of cloud communications over the next few years. Of the vendors reviewed during Cavell’s research, it was revealed as much as 15% of customers demanded contact centre solutions and that number is expected to keep on rising as we move forward into the future.
Next, Cavell informed us that the SIP Trunking market has grown at a stronger rate in 2017 than it has done for the last few years and it is mainly driven by a few key providers targeting the larger enterprise.
Though Britain opted out of the review for IP migration, it was revealed that the number of businesses across Europe that are switching out their ISDN/PSTN lines for SIP is rising dramatically and Britain is expected to follow this trend.
Moreover, following on from BT’s announcement of their plan to close down their ISDN network by 2025, Cavell stated that, though the set date hasn’t driven as much movement in the market as they expected so far, if BT starts to proactively migrate their base to IP, the SIP Trunking market quickly will pick up speed.
Key Market Themes
Finally, Cavell named some of the key market themes services providers should be preparing for in the future, the first of which being a much greater demand for better interaction with customer’s in the contact centre.
From their research, Cavell noted a sharp increase in embedded and vertical communication as more service providers began opening up APIs and finding solutions to help improve real-time communication channels.
There was also mention of cloud applications being delivered over SIP Trunks to create an IP journey for those who were not yet ready to abandon their investments in on-premises PBX, though, they added, this is very much in its infancy stage.
For Microsoft, a company whose movements service providers are always wary of, only 40% of all providers involved in the survey believed the corporate giants would pose an increased threat over the next 12 months and that’s only for channels targeting larger enterprise.
UC Today Opinion
Perhaps the most interesting thing to take from this webinar was the news that the contact centre will play a crucially important role in business communications over the next 12 months and is expected to continue doing so well into the future.
Though team collaboration tools do not seem to be making a positive impact on markets in the present, we can rightly assume that they will play a much more important role in the future as businesses become more invested in and familiarised with cloud communications.
Alongside this, the growth of SIP Trunking markets throughout and BT’s announcement of ISDN line closure in 2025 ultimately puts an end date on traditional lined communication and gives service providers a good incentive to move their customers into IP telephony.
All in all, it’s clear that the cloud communications market is thriving and the recent growth spurt is set to keep on swelling from one period to the next.
For more information on Cavell’s research reports please visit their website.
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