SANTA CLARA, CA – Customer demand for more flexible technology consumption models to support digital transformation projects is helping to fuel growth in the North American hosted Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) market, says a new report from Frost & Sullivan.
North American Hosted IP Telephony and UCaaS Market, Forecast to 2023 provides an in-depth analysis of the market potential for hosted IP telephony and UCaaS in terms of users and revenues. Drivers and restraints, forecasts and trends, visioning scenarios, and evolving business models and technologies are analyzed, with market share and competitive analysis included.
According to the report, the market in 2016 experienced “healthy growth” of 32.1% in terms of installed users and 30.6% in terms of revenue (without access). The market is expected to maintain robust double-digit growth rates throughout the forecast period.
Premises-based communications solutions reaching end of life and increasing availability of compelling UCaaS offerings are also encouraging the move to cloud communications. Market leaders such as 8×8, Fonality (now NetFortris), and RingCentral have evolved and realigned their strategies with the market to become some of the most successful providers today, continues the report.
Other key players and their strategies include:
– Rogers Communications, PanTerra, and Verizon disrupting the market with innovative new offerings;
– Vonage's foray into the business service space via multiple complementary acquisitions has propelled it to the second-highest position in terms of hosted IP telephony revenue; and
– Disruptive new entrants such as CiscoMicrosoft, Unify and Zang challenging the status quo with compelling solutions packaging and pricing.
"Currently, the market is relatively untapped and can support a large number of providers with a diverse background and skill set. As the market matures, highly diversified telecommunications companies and software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers are likely to dominate”, said digital transformation vice-president Elka Popova, in the report’s news release. "Providers of non-unified communication (UC) backgrounds will increasingly disrupt the market. These new entrants must possess certain differentiators and competitive advantages to ensure a greater chance of success."
