We’ve seen plenty of evidence of cloud popularity in the recent years, and the latest studies suggest that growth within the UCaaS enterprise is expected to continue, with more than half of all businesses (51%) predicted to invest in cloud unified services by 2020. The information comes from a BroadSoft survey of global telecom providers, which also points to the accelerated adoption of cloud team collaboration and contact center services.
If this cloud-based prophecy comes true, then this will mean that UCaaS far surpasses premise-based PBX as the solution of choice for businesses of all shapes and sizes. The 2016 BroadSoft Survey results indicate that respondents expected the Hosted PBX/UCaaS share of new lines to reach around 51% by 2020, a ten percent increase from last year’s results. The most significant change in cloud adoption is also expected to occur within the large enterprise segment, where telecommunication companies believe that 45% of all large enterprises will take on UCaaS/Hosted PBX by the close of 2020, an increase of 25% since last year.
According to chief digital and marketing officer of BroadSoft, Taher Behbehani, the industry has reached a tipping point in which old PBX systems are finally on their way out, and are no longer being upgraded with like for like. The cloud is becoming more of a realistic solution, particularly as mobility becomes more important.
The Survey Results
According to the BroadSoft Survey, we should expect to see Cloud UC value and adoption accelerating across all parts of the market. While early stage adoption is more common in the small business market, the latest survey thinks that large and medium enterprises appear to be catching up rapidly, with respondents believing that by 2020, Hosted PBX/ UCaaS shares will increase to:
- 55% for small businesses (7% up from last year)
- 49% for midmarket businesses (11% up from last year)
- 45% for large enterprises (25% up from last year)
76% of all survey respondents also believe that the cloud makes it much easier for enterprises to adopt advanced UC solutions, which leads to increased customer value and opportunities for revenue.
The Drivers of Cloud UC
BroadSoft conducted their survey into cloud communications on 140 global telecom providers and industry leaders in the fourth quarter of 2016 during BroadSoft Connections – their annual user’s conference.
It seems that while mobility is an essential factor in enterprise development, the user experience of real-time UC on mobile delivered hasn’t quite kept pace. Because of this, native mobile integration which offers an integrated mobile experience within the device’s native dialer has emerged as a key experience driver for businesses. 89% of respondents believe that native mobile integration is important for mobile solutions, and results suggest that over 90% of UC businesses will require some mobile integration – which is a great opportunity for telcos in 2017 who want to deliver a superior end-to-end experience.
Alongside UC, contact center solutions are also shifting more rapidly to the cloud. By 2020, survey participants believe that 43% of contact center seats will be based in the cloud, and 84% of the respondents in the survey also thought that predictive analytics functionality would be important to end-users, suggesting that new businesses will begin to seek analytics-based cloud solutions that integrated with team collaboration and UC applications.
Finally, team collaboration is also emerging as a key requirement for telecom providers. 78% of survey respondents believe that team collaboration is a crucial end user requirement in their respective market, while 95% believe that integrating team collaboration into their UCaaS represents a significant new opportunity.
