A Moving Target

Just when it seemed UC was the ultimate enterprise communication could get, there came in UcaaS — and the ground is laid for social UC

Effective communication is the lifeline of healthy businesses. And to stay aligned with the new communication requirements, the technologies that facilitate it are undergoing paradigm shifts. Concepts like BYOD are adding to the growth, while small and medium enterprises are attempting to play catch-up with room-based voice and video solutions, thus widening the potential of the communication equipment and devices markets.

If the past decade saw IP and VoIP technologies revolutionizing the enterprise communications markets, the coming phase inevitably belongs to unified communications (UC). This is not to say that existing VoIP and other solutions will become redundant; rather, they could become integral parts of the more comprehensive UC offerings over long term.

However, in a near term, there is considerable room for VoIP solutions to be adopted across enterprises on a standalone basis as well, particularly in the SMB segment. Given that India’s SMB sector is expected to expand from an estimated 40 million to over 70 million over a period of next five years, the IP and VoIP solutions market too would be poised for growth. Moreover, the deployment of LTE and LTE-A networks is likely to have a transformational impact on the quality of VoIP services and propel it into mainstream mobile communication services.

As per Transparency Market Research, APAC is expected to be the fastest growth market for video conferencing in the coming years, growing at a CAGR of 8.9 percent between 2015 and 2023. To cash in on this collaborative workplace market, vendors are readying solutions to cater to the needs of SMBs, and of course, for enterprises. For example, Microsoft has partnered with Polycom to offer video collaboration solutions. As part of the arrangement, Polycom will develop new video room solutions exclusively for Microsoft’s Skype for Business. Also, Polycom and Microsoft will jointly deliver a cloud-based video interoperability service. (In a more recent development, however, Polycom has been acquired by Canada-based Mitel.)

With the Skype for Business, an enterprise can add up to 250 people for online meetings. It comes with enterprise-grade security, allows management of employee accounts, and is integrated into the Office applications. It has features like multi-party HD video and content sharing and can even support interactive meetings.

Cisco and Avaya, which lead the conferencing and collaboration market in India, too have solutions to cater to the needs of SMBs.