The unified communications (UC) services market in Australia is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14% through to 2019, according to Frost & Sullivan.
Factors driving growth in the overall UC services market in Australia are demand for managed services for UC, demand for hosted voice and contact center solutions, uptake from SMB segment; and uptake from the government as well as banking and finance sectors.
"On-premise deployment remains the predominant model for UC deployment in Australia, with the cloud-based alternative still at an early stage of growth,” said Audrey William, head of research for Australia and New Zealand at ICT Frost & Sullivan. “While the hosted and cloud-based UC market in Australia is at an early stage of growth, the segment is poised for strong growth over the next five to seven years.”
Wiliam said managed services accounted for about 35% of overall UC services revenues in 2012 and the segment is expected to experience strong growth as organizations prefer to use managed services for their audio and collaboration infrastructure.
She added that in terms of applications, voice-based solutions and conferencing solutions together accounted for the majority of UC services revenues in 2012. For hosted conferencing solutions (audio, video and web), Australia remains one of the largest markets within APAC, with hosted audio conferencing generating majority of the revenues.
The cloud-based UC model represents a major shift for UC channel partners who were previously focused on professional services and support services. Many channel partners are realigning their strategies to be in a position to capitalise on future customer demands.
Channels that have a significant dependence on traditional hardware and on-premise UC solutions risk becoming irrelevant as demand for cloud-based UC gathers momentum, said William.