Australian UC market tops $340 million in 2007

Revenue from Australia’s unified communications market is expected to double in the next six years

Australia’s unified communications market revenue hit $340.2 million in 2007 and is expected to double in the next six years, according to analyst firm, Frost and Sullivan. In a new report, titled Australia Unified Communications Services Report 2008, senior research manager, Audrey William, claimed in spite of a forecast slowdown in the next two years because of the financial turmoil, the UC market should grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.7 per cent between 2007 and 2014.

Williams said the complexity of UC meant vendors were having to review their channel strategies.

“If you look at the Australian market right now there are not many system integrators or channels that have the capabilities to deliver an end-to-end UC deployment because it is very complex,” she said. “You are not just talking about one technology but you are talking about linking things from the voice to the desktop right down to the network and also understanding how this can fit into a mobile environment.

“What you are going to see in the market is that a lot of vendors will be looking to revamp their channel strategy because you cannot have your traditional channels today that only sell voice or IP telephony go out and talk about the UC value proposition. It will be a new set of channels there. I think vendors today are evaluating whether they keep their current channels, do they look for new channels, or do they train new channels to get up to that level of integration?”

Williams also said vendors had highlighted their channels lacked the skills to take customers to the next level with UC.

“A lot of them have said their larger channels can do it but maybe they are looking at bringing in some new channels that are vertically specialised, or that can do mobile integration, desktop integration, network integration and have in understanding in integrating web services and Web 2.0 application,” she said.

The report also noted hosted services such as conferencing, email and telephony accounted for 55.7 per cent of revenue. Integration and implementation services were the second biggest at 16.2 per cent and maintenance services hit 14.9 per cent.

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