Enterprise Segment to Be a Growth Engine for Hosted VoIP Services

In North America and Western Europe, large companies will play an increasing role in VoIP adoption, according to a recent study from ABI Research. Hosted services will be used on a more regular basis as well, becoming a stronger engine for enterprise VoIP growth in the future.

“Increasingly, hosted services will interest larger organizations and will be offered by a greater number of service providers — as premises-deployed, small-business VoIP solutions become more cost-effective: targeting advanced features and applications,” says Stan Schatt, ABI Research vice president and research director.

The hosted services market for VoIP applications initially focused on (and found success with) smaller companies. Typically, smaller companies do not have the IT staff or the budget to install their own VoIP systems.  As a result, they often rely on service providers for VoIP services that include the type of features found in large-enterprise phone networks.

Larger companies tend to deploy their own solutions because they have an IT staff and a significant budget; so it makes sense to keep core-business communications technology in-house. “However,” adds Schatt, “there are some large companies scattered in myriad locations that opt for hosted services.” Service providers have not focused on large-enterprise-hosted phone services, but this is likely to change in the future as telecom operators (i.e., the traditional market leaders) face new competition in the smaller-business market from competitive operators, cable operators, and other alternative service providers.

“And as the forecast period progresses, larger companies will adopt hosted services.  This is attributed to several factors, including hesitance to invest in new premises equipment and an interest to upgrade satellite offices that require larger equipment installations than if the volume of users were centralized in one location — thus making a hosted service more economically feasible.”

ABI Research believes service providers will take their experience with easy-to-serve small companies and adaptively re-size to favor larger companies.

ABI Research’s recent study, “The Evolution of Enterprise VoIP: Shifting Trends for PBX, IP Phones, VoW, and Hosted Services” quantifies the impact of Internet Protocol private branch exchanges (IP-PBX), hosted solutions, and Internet Protocol (IP) telephones on the enterprise and carrier markets. The study discusses shifts in enterprise migration from legacy networks to VoIP, as well as demands from enterprises for related services and end-device equipment. It forms part of the company’s

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Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York, ABI Research maintains global operations supporting annual research programs, intelligence services, and market reports in broadband and multimedia, RFID & contactless, M2M, wireless connectivity, mobile wireless, transportation, and emerging technologies. For information, visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.