A T3i Group Market Intelligence Program Focused on Communications Convergence (UC)

Important findings:

• 41% of Enterprises are Substantially Reducing Plans for UC Apps Versus 23% in 2008 U.S. Enterprise decision-makers who participated in this survey and those who took part in a similar IUC survey a year ago were asked the following question: To what extent will cutbacks in IT spending this year change your planned implementation of IP Telephony and UC applications? As noted in Exhibit ES-1, 41% of the Enterprises in the March 2009 study had made a significant reduction in their plans for implementing converged apps. This was divided between 14% whose converged app implementation plans were on hold, and 27% who indicated a major reduction in converged app implementation plans. In March 2008, only 23% were expected to make such major changes. In the current survey, 34% of the Enterprises indicated a major change in plans for implementing IP Telephony, but only 12% of them had put all their plans on hold compared to the 22% who had made a major reduction in their plans. A year ago, only 24% of the Enterprises were going to substantially change their IPT implementation plans.  
• 38% of SMBs are Substantially Reducing Plans for UC Apps Versus 23% in 2008 U.S. SMB decision-makers who participated in this survey and those who took part in a similar IUC survey a year ago were asked the same question: To what extent will cutbacks in IT spending this year change your planned implementation of IP Telephony and UC applications? As shown in Exhibit ES-2, 38% of the SMBs this year had made a significant reduction in their plans for implementing converged apps. Most of that was represented by the 29% whose converged app implementation plans were on hold, but an additional 9% indicated that they had made a major reduction in converged app implementation plans. In March 2008, only 23% were expected to make such major changes. In the current survey, 39% of the SMBs indicated a substantial change in plans for implementing IP Telephony, but only 10% of them had made a major reduction in their plans compared to the 29% who had put those plans on hold. In the March 2008 survey, 31% of the SMBs had significantly changed their IPT implementation plans.   
  
• 45% to 50% of All Businesses Will Spend Less on UC Apps in 2009 than in 2008 In Exhibit ES-3, all of the decision-makers were asked to compare their expected spending on UC apps in 2009 with the actual spending in 2008. Between 45% and 50% of all three groups indicated that spending would be lower in 2009 than in 2008 45% of the U.S. Enterprises noted that 2009 spending would be either somewhat or significantly lower than in 2008. This was somewhat offset by the 35% indicated that the 2009 spending would be higher. The situation was worse among U.S. SMBs. 49% of that group expected lower spending in 2009 compared to only 19% who planned to spend more on UC apps this year. 23% of the SMBs indicated that their spending cuts would be significantly lower. This was the highest percentage of significant cuts among the three segments. The International group was a mix of both Enterprises and SMBs. Their 2009 spending plans were also pessimistic with only 23% expecting higher outlays and 46% intending to spend less than in 2008.
  

To request more information on the IUC program - please contact Bonnie Fairbrother by email at bfairbrother@t3igroup.com or by phone at (973) 602-0181 or contact Dennis Kelly at dkelly@t3igroup.com or by phone at (973) 602-0180.