Product Type: Market Research Report
Published by: Ovum Plc
Published: August 2009
Product Code: R464-1520Description The market for unified communications (UC) is expected to grow significantly in the next two years, even in the midst of the economic downturn. IP telephony vendors have largely defined what UC comprises and have taken on the burden of educating enterprises. Fixed telecoms operators, IT services providers, UC technology vendors and specialists are all jostling to take a share of what businesses will spend on UC.
But where does this leave mobile network operators (MNOs)? Eager to penetrate further into the enterprise and evolve from offering network access provision to full managed communications services, many MNOs want to play a pivotal role in enterprise UC rollouts.
What should MNOs offer, who should they target, and - most importantly - are they in a position to deliver? This report profiles major mobile-centric UC strategies, discusses feature and functionality priorities, and offers strategic guidance to help MNOs both create demand among enterprises in key sectors, and meet it.
Table of Contents - Executive summary
- In a nutshell
- Ovum view
- Recommendations
- Beyond access and connectivity
- Target SMEs
- Sell infrastructure simplification and explain how features could change business practices
- Bridge the divide between fixed and mobile
- Focus on the core UC features first; worry about horizontal applications later
- Competition will come from IP telephony vendors with a strong SME presence
- Partner with Microsoft
- Consider other partners
- Orchestrate; don’t own
- Revolutionise your tariffs
- Build a service infrastructure
- Exploit your position of strength
- Mobile-centric UC is currently a small market
- Potentially worth billions in operator revenues through 2014
- MNOs must not let this opportunity pass them by
- UC is evolving, but businesses remain confused
- Defining wireless UC connections
- Defining mobile-centric UC
- ‘Owning’ the service
- Mobile operators will need to pick their target segments carefully
- For MNOs, SMEs should be the major target
- The first advantage stems from the ubiquity of mobile phones in smaller businesses
- As SMEs migrate from legacy PBXs, the opportunity for MNOs increases
- MNOs must jostle for position with other players
- Larger businesses are not ‘low-hanging fruit’ for mobile operators
- Smaller businesses are more receptive to FMS
- MNOs have few coherent strategies, and even fewer services
- There are significant barriers to market entry
- MNOs with the right approach will overcome barriers
- Focus on core features when building your service
- Don’t sell UC; sell its benefits
- Email is your foot in the door
- Be aggressive to secure essential partners
- Consider a partnership with Microsoft
- Vodafone and Microsoft are an early example
- BlackBerry will likely emerge as another major partner
- IP telephony vendors themselves
- The hosted scenario may require a migration path
- Managed premise-based solutions
- Network-based FMS platform providers
- Identify the channels that will deliver the business
- Creating a channel
- The store front
- Telesales and the Web
- Routing vendor VARs
- Tariffing mentalities must change
- Impact on tariff structures
- Don’t overlook service management
- Fulfilment on the promise
- List of Figures
- Figure 1: The number of enterprise wireless UC connections will skyrocket by 2014
- Figure 2: Four types of players are vying to orchestrate the UC stack
- Figure 3: Mobile phones are the access point of choice for SMEs
- Figure 4: Opportunity increases as conventional PBXs hit their end of life
- Figure 5: The UC competitive landscape
- Figure 6: Email is the foundation for mobile applications
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