8 / 24
more likely that future adopters
will opt for some type of UC-as-
a-service offering,” says the UBM
Tech study.
Among respondents who made
their decisions to implement UC a
year or more ago, for instance, only
35 percent even considered the
cloud, and just 19 percent wound
up going with a cloud-based solu-
tion. Of respondents who are still
contemplating their UC implemen-
tations, on the other hand, more
than half say they are now likely to
consider cloud. “In fact, 15 percent
have already made up their minds
that if and when they implement
UC, it will definitely be cloud-based,”
found UBM Tech researchers.
Of course, a cloud delivery mod-
el, in and of itself, is not enough.
UCaaS providers also have stepped
up their games.
“UCaaS offerings are increas-
ingly functionally competitive with their
premises-based alternatives,” write
Gartner analysts Daniel O’Connell and
Bern Elliot in the firm’s most recent
Magic Quadrant report on the cat-
egory. Key improvement in 2015, says
Gartner, include an improved UCaaS
user experience, API connectivity with
leading cloud applications and mobile-
first user deployments.
Among specific providers,
Star2Star recently introduced
StarBox CCM 2.0 to facilitate
onboarding and support for
large enterprises with special-
ized or complex dialing needs.
The company also introduced
StarBand to its UCaaS offer-
ing, which supports
primary and second-
ary circuit support,
traffic prioritization
and automatic failover
and service quality
monitoring. Recently
added capabilities also
include Android mobile
support, screen shar-
ing and an automated
quoting tool.
In 2015 Mitel, for its
part, acquired Mavenir to
enhance its mobility ca-
pabilities. The Mitel Open
Integration Gateway (OIG),
meanwhile, supports inte-
grations with Salesforce,
SugarCRM, Google, Micro-
soft, NetSuite and Zoho,
as well as custom integra-
tions. And a partnership
with Vidyo has improved Mitel’s
video capabilities, says Gartner,
while also enabling integration
with Polycom and Cisco video.
RingCentral likewise contin-
ues to expand its capabilities
and in 2015 added integration
with Google Apps for Work, Mi-
crosoft Office 365, and a Ring-
Central-branded contact center
developed with inContact.
The good news for all pro-
viders and resellers of unified
communications: UC adopters
are seeing results. According
to UBM Tech findings, 82 per-
cent of adopters reported they
their UC deployment met or
exceeded their expectations for
improved team collaboration,
which was the number one ex-
pected benefit. Eight in 10 said
UC met or exceeded expecta-
tions in terms of improved user pro-
ductivity, while three-quarters said
the same about lowering technology
ownership cost. All told, 87 percent
of adopters say UC met or exceeded
their expectations.
And even more good news for
UCaaS providers, according to UBM
Tech findings, whereas 47 of current
users opted for on-premises UC, only
13 percent of future adopters are
likely to choose on-premises.
o
Source: UBM Tech, XO
Over the next 5 years, hosted VoIP and
UC will be the segment with the largest
growth in the global VoIP and
unified communications market
IT security solutio
Source: Spiceworks
Don’t know
Little or no
difficulty
Moderate difficulty
Significant difficulty
Almost derailed
the project
40
60
20
0
40
$90
$80
$70
$60
$50
$40
$30
$20
60
20
0
36%
Intrusion
detection
Anti-spam
25%
Source: UBM Tech, XO
How much difficulty did each of the
following present during your organization’s
UC implementation?
Choosing on-premises or cloud
Choosing UC vendor(s)
Solutions did not work as promised
Cost or time overruns
End-user adoption
Funtional problems during pilot
Technical complexity
19%
17%
45%
23% 13% 2%
18%
40%
26%
14% 2%
20%
36%
29% 11% 4%
14%
32%
37%
14% 3%
16%
29%
44%
9% 2%
13% 23%
44%
16% 4%
45%
27% 7% 2%
Don’t know
Not an obstacle Moderate obstacle
Significant obstacle
Deal-breaking obstacle
Source: UBM Tech, XO
How much of an obstacle is e ch of the
following to your organization’s adoption
of UC?
Cost
Lack of in-house technical expertise
Management not sure about benefits or ROI
Perceived risk of disruption
Confusing choices or conflicting vendor claims
IT not sure about benefits or ROI
Previous bad experiences
19%
18%
20%
29%
23% 10%
18% 8% 27%
37%
10%
20% 11% 30%
30% 9%
20% 11%
34%
27%
8%
20%
15%
30%
29%
6%
25%
41%
16% 13% 5%
5% 26%
37%
13%
nue (US$ Billions)
Lack
Cost of current DR
Lack of availa
Assistance with DR pla
Assistance a
Internal or external
Source: UBM Tech, XO
Over the next 5 years, hosted VoIP and
UC will be the segment with the largest
IT security solutions expected to have an increase
Don’t know
Little or no
difficulty
Moderate difficulty
Significant difficulty
Almost derailed
the project
40
60
20
0
40
60
20
36%
32%
30%
30%
Intrusion
detection
Content
filtering
Firewalls
VPN
25%
24%
23%
23%
Avoidance of ongoing op
Faster time-to-befefit
Greater reliability or resiliency
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
Choosi g UC vendor(s)
S lutions 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%
Don’t know
Not an obstacle Moderate obstacle
Significant obstacle
Deal-breaking obstacle
Source: UBM Tech, XO
How much of an obstacle is each of the
following to your organization’s adoption
of UC?
Cost
Lack of in-house technical expertise
Management not sure about benefits or ROI
Perceived risk of disruption
Confusing choices or conflicting vendor claims
IT not sure about benefits or ROI
Previous bad experiences
19%
18%
20%
29%
23% 10%
18% 8% 27%
37%
10%
20% 11% 30%
30% 9%
20% 11%
34%
27%
8%
20%
15%
30%
29%
6%
25%
41%
16% 13% 5%
5% 26%
37%
13%
What are drivers for your custom
DRa S? (Select all that apply)
Source: Veeam
Lack of DR site
Lack of DR expertise
Cost of current DR infrastructure
Lack of a ai able personnel
Assistance with DR planning/testing
Assistance after disaster
Internal or external regulations
49
33%
33%
What are the top three tasks y ur company uses
cloud computing to c mplete?
Source: IHS, Inc.
Over the next 5 years, hosted VoIP and
UC will be the segment with the largest
growth in the global VoIP and
unified communications market
2015
2020
22%
20%
21%
20%
17%
18%
19%
14%
11%
12%
14%
12%
10%
14%
$90
$80
$70
$60
$50
$40
$30
$20
$10
$0
Third
Priority
Second
Priority
First
Priority
Don’t know
Not an obstacle Modera
Significant obstacle
Deal-breaking obstacle
Source: UBM Tech, XO
How much of an obstacle is each of th
following to your organization’s adopti
of UC?
Cost
Lack of in-house technical expertise
Management not sure about benefits or ROI
Perceived risk of disruption
Confusing choices or conflicting vendor claims
IT not sure about benefits or ROI
Previous bad experiences
19%
18%
20%
29%
23%
18% 8% 27%
37%
20% 11% 30%
30%
20% 11%
34%
27%
20%
15%
30%
29%
25%
41%
16% 1
5% 26%
37%
Residential/SOHO VoIP
Business VoIP - IP Connectivity
Business VoIP - Hosted VoIP & UC
Business VoIP - Managed IP PBX
Global Revenue (US$ Billions)
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