An in-depth study of the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market demand for Unified Communications (UC)

Important findings:

• More than half of the U.S. SMBs polled are in the process of implementing, trialing or planning to implement IP Telephony, and some 70 percent were in the process of implementing, trialing or planning to implement Converged Applications.However, due to cutbacks in IT spending, about one-quarter of these report they have made significant changes in their implementation plans for 2008:

• The current forecast of U.S. revenue for SMB converged apps in 2008 is 11 percent lower than was projected in the previous InfoTech SMB market forecast, but this still represents a robust one year growth rate of 68 percent.

• Despite cutbacks in 2008 spending, the SMB decision-makers actually are more optimistic about their implementation of UC applications in the future. In the 2008 IUC survey, U.S. SMBs expect higher attach rates in 2012 for six out of the eight UC applications compared with our 2007 Survey results.  

• IUC analysis indicates UC is being implemented in three phases: the System-Centric phase, the Application-Centric phase and the Process-Centric phase. At the end of 2007, 43 percent of U.S. SMBs and 39 percent of International SMBs were in the Systems-Centric phase. In addition 37 percent of U.S. SMBs and 42 percent of International SMBs had not yet started implementing.   However, by the end of 2009, both U.S. and international SMBs are optimistic about their progression to the more advanced phases.

• SMB decision-makers clearly believe in the potential value of UC apps, but many are expecting their IP Telephony and UC app vendors to help them identify the best opportunities for realizing this potential value.

For more information on this report contact Mike O'Neill at 973/602-0114 or at  moneill@telecomweb.com