Future Looks Bright for Conferencing Solutions with Customers to Emerge the Winners

  

  

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There is an impending change in the market in relation to communications that will benefit customer companies greatly. According to new data from Wainhouse Research, the intersection of online collaboration with mobility, VoIP, Unified Communications and Social Networking, is expected to change how collaboration services are packaged, priced and used.

Market Forecast

The worldwide online collaboration and conferencing market is schedule to hit $7.1B by 2013. Included in this forecast is the expectation that total audio conferencing volume will nearly double between 2008 and 2013. Minutes of audio conferencing are expected to surpass 102B minutes and revenue will increase by nearly $1B.

Surprisingly, even with growing unemployment – which has limited and will continue to limit the number of user accounts – individual account usage has grown. In other words, while fewer people may be currently using audio conferencing and other online collaboration tools, those that are using them are doing so more frequently, a trend that is expected to continue.

Good News for Pricing

The good news for audio conferencing customers is that average prices for this service are expected to decline at a slow pace and are likely to be bundled with new services. At the same time, Web conferencing is expected to rise dramatically, which should speed time to market of new capabilities and improved technologies. Revenue in this area is expected to grow at slower rates as hosting options are changing the dynamics of pricing models throughout the industry.

Companies the world over are finding that collaboration tools are an essential element to the ongoing success of the business. Budgets have not loosened their tightening grip as companies looking ahead to 2010 aren’t convinced the recession is completely done.

As such, they have to be able to drive collaboration and teamwork without increasing the cost flow. Audio conferencing and Web conferencing provide essential tools that allow for all players to focus on driving the core initiatives of the business.

User Demands Still Growing

While such conferencing tools are increasingly delivering value to customers throughout the world, the demand for their associated technologies is growing. At the same time, users are demanding even better quality, ease-of-use and integration. Such elements will be competitive differentiators in the market as it will no longer be enough for a provider to simply offer the services.

As these conferencing tools become a routine part of daily operations, IT organizations will struggle to deliver consistent, customized and cost-effective options if they fail to partner with a company that can deliver on customized services that are flexible and scalable according to the needs of the company. Those solutions that can leverage existing infrastructure to deliver optimal conferencing experience will dominate into 2010.