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Increased demand for cost-saving technologies such as video and collaboration helped to drive the Australian Unified Communications (UC) services market to a record high in 2008, reaching a total estimated value of A$608.7 million according to the latest UC analysis released by consulting company, Frost & Sullivan: Australia Unified Communications Services Report 2009.
Government, education, health care, retail and financial services organisations led demand while several large multinationals also significantly reduced travel expenditure and are now encouraging the use of videoconferencing solutions.
The complexity of interconnecting UC technologies is expected to ensure solid growth for the UC services sector in the medium term, delivering an estimated compound annual growth rate for the sector of 5.7 percent between 2009 and 2015. As UC technologies are increasingly integrated with video, social networking and web 2.0 applications, mobility, contact centre and business process applications, the report predicts a corresponding increase in demand for consulting, design and managed service capabilities.
At present consulting services account for seven percent of total UC services revenues, with other offerings in the category including network and infrastructure assessment, and voice and wireless assessment. Managed services is expected to be an important growth area with large and medium sized organisations looking for external parties to manage all UC applications, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These organisations will also require easy accessibility to technologies such as telepresence and videoconferencing, both of which will further drive demand for end-to-end managed services.
Audrey William, Research Director, ICT, Frost & Sullivan says, “The UC services market saw some very high profile mergers and acquisitions during 2008. This has caused a narrowing of market participants and as a result, is heightening the competition. We expect that some systems integrators will find this newly-reduced environment challenging, especially as they are called upon to compete with more established UC services players."
The Australia Unified Communications Services Report 2009 forms part of the Frost & Sullivan Unified Communications Program. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Interviews with the press are available.
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 35 offices on six continents.
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