SaaS-Based Conferencing Drives UC Applications Market

New data from TeleGeography partner Synergy Research Group show that the Unified Communications (UC) applications market grew 11% between Q2 2010 and Q2 2011. According to Synergy's Unified Communications Applications Research Service, this growth was largely attributable to a 27% increase in revenues from the desktop conferencing market segment. The desktop conferencing segment itself is being driven by one of its sub-segments, Software as a Service (SaaS)-based web conferencing. SaaS-based revenues increased 33% between Q2 2010 and Q2 2011 and now account for 36% of all UC applications revenues. Cisco commands the majority of the SaaS-based web conferencing market, holding a 58% share in Q2 2011, up from 54% a year ago. Both Citrix and Microsoft, which hold the number two and three positions in the sub-segment, lost market share in Q2 2011. Other unified communications market segments have not fared as well. Revenues from contact-centre services grew modestly, while unified/voice messaging revenues declined.

The Asia-Pacific region still accounts for only 15% of the global UC applications market, but growth has been far stronger than in other regions. Asia-Pacific UC revenues grew 18% between Q2 2010 and Q2 2011. Cisco has done particularly well in this high-growth region, improving its market share by eleven percentage points over the last four quarters. Worldwide, Avaya remains Cisco's closest rival, followed by Microsoft and Alcatel-Lucent.

‘Conferencing has quickly become an accepted way of conducting business meetings, with a key driver being the need to reduce travel and business expenses,' said Synergy Research Group's Jeremy Duke. ‘The wide availability and acceptance of SaaS-based applications has also been a strong driver of market growth. We forecast that annual revenues from SaaS-based web conferencing will double over the next five years.'

Synergy Research Group's Unified Communications Applications Research Service provides data, analysis and forecasts of the unified communications applications market. Visit Unified Communications Applications Research Service (http://www.telegeography.com/research-services/unified-communications-applications-research-service/index.html) for a more detailed description and product samples.

Synergy Research Group is a strategic partner of TeleGeography, providing market intelligence, analytics and strategic consulting services to the networking and telecom industries.

For more information, please call 202-741-0020 or email sales@telegeography.com.

Press release date: 12 September 2011.