7 / 24
nications, found that only one-third of
organizations had fully embraced UC.
On the other side of the spectrum, a
separate survey performed by Oster-
man Research for ConnectSolutions
found that about as many IT decision-
makers (26 percent) and business
decision makers (39 percent) are
either “somewhat” or “very fearful” of
migrating to UC. Nearly half of those
surveyed admitted that they don’t fully
understand the full impact UC would
have on their organizations. These
fears and trepidations come despite
the fact that 71 percent of those
surveyed by Osterman believe there
are “significant” or even “enormous”
benefits that can be realized from the
deployment of UC.
Once again, the cloud comes to
the rescue.
Of course, cloud or hosted UC is
nothing new either. The concept of
cloud communications and the basis
of UC-as-a-service (UCaaS) go back
at least 15 years. But it’s only more
recently that UCaaS has hit perfor-
mance and feature levels rivalling on-
premises solutions. And many pundits
and proponents believe the cloud is
ready to push a powerful second wave
of UC adoption.
“Private and public cloud-based
UC-as-a-service solutions are ex-
pected to fuel the next phase of
growth,” says BCC Research analyst
Nandita Bhotika. “The cost efficien-
cies and operational flexibility of
these shared services are proving
a potent model for market players.
Although challenges in its adoption
are still a concern, UCaaS is ex-
pected to give the UC&C market its
needed boost.”
BCC researchers expect the mar-
ket for UCaaS to total nearly $18
billion by 2020, up from $6.5 billion
in 2015 and reflecting a five-year
CAGR of 22.5 per-
cent. Much of the
growth, say BCC, will
be driven by wider
adoption among
SMBs, which tend
to find cloud-based
services more acces-
sible due to smaller
capital outlays.
According to Di-
ane Myers, senior
research director at
IHS, Inc., hosted UC
seats, which made up 22 percent of
the unified communications market
in 2014, will jump to 46 percent of
the market by 2019. Myers says
hosted PBX and UC services are be-
ing pitched alongside SIP trunking
as more multi-site businesses seek
out hybrid solutions. Markets and
Markets, meanwhile, makes an even
more ambitious forecast, putting the
UCaaS market at $24.88 billion by
2020. Here again, the research firm
attributes much of this growth to
SMB adoption as these buyers look
to update and simplify communica-
tion processes at an affordable cost.
In a bit of a twist, the optimism
around future cloud UC adoption
has a lot to do with the reasons why
businesses have not adopted UC up
to this point. And, not surprisingly,
the top barrier to UC adoption, at
least according to UBM Tech’s find-
ings, has to do with perceived costs
and subsequently getting an ROI on
those expenses, both of which were
named by about three-quarters of re-
spondents. For more than two-thirds
of non-adopters, UC implementations
are perceived as posing a risk of
disruption to the business, while 62
percent cited a lack of in-house tech-
nical expertise.
“The cloud may well provide one
possible answer,” say
UBM Tech analysts.
Indeed, more
than half (54 per-
cent) of respondents
who don’t yet have
UC in production
believe cloud can
help overcome their top obstacle to
implementation: cost, while about the
same percentage (53 percent) see the
cloud as offering more flexible scal-
ability – a key concern for incremen-
tal UC rollouts, say UBM analysts.
In addition to addressing objec-
tions about upfront capital invest-
ment, the as-a-service model also is
known to alleviate issues with internal
IT skills shortages, while allowing
firms to bypass technical implementa-
tion issues and, in turn, start deliver-
ing results to the business sooner.
A cloud-based deployment also can
facilitate the kind of smaller-scale
pilot that can provide the proof-of-
value executives need to green-light
broader enterprise adoption, UBM
Tech researchers point out.
“These advantages, combined
with ongoing advancement in cloud
technology and market acceptance
of the cloud model, are making it
Source: IHS, Inc.
Hosted UC seats made up 22% of the unified communication
services market in 2014, growing to 46% in 2019
70%
2014
2019
35%
0%
Source: UBM Tech, XO
Next Wave of UC
Don’t know
Little or no
difficulty
Moderate difficulty
Significant difficulty
Almost derailed
the project
Which of the following do you per eive as advantages
of cloud-enabled UC?
Source: Syngergy Research Group
Hosted UC
Hosted PBX
Global Seats (Millions)
Reduction of major capital costs
More flexible scalability
Avoidance of ongoing operational management burdens
Faster time-to-befefit
Greater reliability or resiliency
54%
53%
47%
44%
35%
Source: UBM Tech, XO
How much difficulty did each of the
following present during your organization’s
UC implementation?
Choosing on-premises or cloud
Choosing UC vendor(s)
Solutions did not work as promised
Cost or time overruns
End-user adoption
Funtional problems during pilot
Technical complexity
19%
17%
45%
23% 13% 2%
18%
40%
26%
14% 2%
20%
36%
29% 11% 4%
14%
32%
37%
14% 3%
16%
29%
44%
9% 2%
13% 23%
44%
16% 4%
45%
27% 7% 2%
Source: IHS, Inc.
Hosted UC seats made up 22% of the unified communi
services market in 2014, growing to 46% in 2019
70%
2014
2019
35%
0%
Source: UBM Tech, XO
Next Wave of UC
Which of the following do you perceive as advantages
of cloud-enabled UC?
Salesforce
Microsoft
Adob
SAP
Other Top
Ten
0%
5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Source: Syngergy Research Group
Worldwide Market Share - 2015
ADP, Google, IBM, Intuit, Oracle, Workday
Annual Gro
Salesforc
21%
Microsof
70%
Adobe
55%
SAP
73%
Other top T
29%
Hosted UC
Hosted PBX
Global Seats (Millions)
Reduction of major capital costs
More flexible scalability
Avoidance of ongoing operational management burdens
Faster time-to-befefit
Greater reliability or resiliency
54%
53%
47%
44%
35%
How much difficulty did each f the
following present during your organization’s
UC implementation?
Choosing on-premises or cloud
Choosing UC vendor(s)
Solutions did not work as promised
Cost or time overruns
19%
17%
45%
23% 13% 2
18%
40%
26%
14% 2
45%
27% 7% 2
UC&C Market Size and Expectations
Service Type
2015
2020
CAGR
Global UC&C market total
$26.5 billion $62 billion
18.5%
On-premises deployments $18.2 billion $37.8 billion 15.7%
Hybrid deployment
$1.8 billion
$6.2 billion 28%
UCaaS
$6.5 billion
$18 billion
22.5%
Source: BCC Research
7
THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S
PLAYBOOK