Growth of Unified Communications Reaches into Contact Center Market

Unified communications (UC) have swept through the enterprise, enhancing quality, efficiency and productivity, while reducing overall communication costs. These benefits have not escaped the contact center.

In fact, the implementation of unified communications can greatly enhance the performance of the contact center, helping it to reduce costs and increase effectiveness. With the benefits that unified technologies can provide throughout the enterprise, the market is likely to continue growing.

COMMfusion, in association with UCStrategies.com, has announced a new study on the growing unified communications market. Unified communications is defined as communications that are integrated to optimize business processes.

UC products, technologies and solutions are significantly impacting the enterprises’ approach to telephony, desktop applications, conferencing and mobility. In addition, vendors and end-users are taking note of the implications and what it means for the future of communications; whether it is in the contact center or throughout the enterprise.

 

UCStrategies.com and COMMfusion have released Unified Communications (News - Alert) Market 2007-2012. This report is positioned as one of the most comprehensive studies on unified communications, including the drivers, challenges, key players, technology, trends, and market forecasts.

Vendors and enterprise customers alike should be asking a number of questions as they are considering their forward-looking strategies. These questions include: What makes up a Unified Communications solution? What threats do UC vendors face? How big is the market today, and where will it be in five years? How should enterprises roll out and implement their UC solutions? Is the time right for purchasing UC systems?

There is not doubt that UC is changing the way enterprises purchase telephony capabilities. Early adopters are now experiencing significant return on investment, as well as improvements and enhancements to customer service and productivity.

Those organizations that implement UC solutions are able to get their jobs done more efficiently and effectively, while transforming their businesses. This is especially important in the contact center where every minute and every action is measured for performance.

While examining the total revenues of all the UC components, worldwide total gross or “UC capable” revenues for Unified Communications is expected to grow from $9.52 billion in 2007 to $15.9 billion by 2012, for a compounded annual growth rate of roughly 51.5 percent.

The portion of the growth rate expected to be purchased and used for UC solutions, representing the Net or True UC market, will grow from $200.8 million in 2007 to $2.433 billion by 2012, Professional services will increase the product revenues by 18 percent in 2007, reaching 40 percent in 2012.

These projections indicate that those companies that are not currently examining the benefits of UC applications should be as the benefits are not only significant, it is likely that their competitors are implementing such solutions, putting them in a position to drive down costs and passing these savings onto the consumer. In the contact center industry, such a shift can make the difference in the completion of the sale.