VoIP is the hottest enterprise telecoms product

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 14 June 2006 18:19

Business IT - Technology

According to IDC Australia's latest survey of end-users' usage of and preferences for broadband and IP services, VoIP represents the biggest opportunity for companies offering products and services to this market.
"The major growth opportunity however, is in enterprise VoIP in all its flavours including self-implemented IP telephony and managed/hosted VoIP," IDC says.

"Self-implemented/DIY IPT has the highest growth potential compared with other services as 19 percent of companies are either planning to deploy it or evaluating it," said Susana Vidal, senior analyst, telecommunications at IDC. "This finding is in line with IDC's Enterprise Telephony Equipment Tracker, which showed strong growth on IP PABX and IP phones from the vendor's perspective".

Other survey findings reveal that Australian businesses are keen to adopt new technologies when the price is right and the quality is proven. Although ADSL2/ADSL2+ and WiMAX/wireless broadband are quite new in the market, companies are already migrating to these solutions from older technologies and the trend is expected to continue.

The need for companies to increase their employees' productivity has also boosted the growth of IP services that help provide remote access to their employees, IDC says, citing as an example the significant adoption growth of IPSec IP VPN this year when compared with 2005.

IDC found that Telstra was able to regain some mind share in the broadband market and the IP services segments and that Optus maintained the same mind share as last year in broadband and increased mind share in IP services.
 
"Australian businesses are even savvier now regarding their broadband and IP services needs. They will not remain loyal to a specific service provider because of brand, but will choose among any new SP that can offer an adequate quality of service/network, good customer service and easy billing at the right price," said Vidal.

This findings come from IDC's annual end-user survey of telecommunications technology usage and trends in Australian businesses. Interviews were conducted in March/April 2006 with decision makers from 250 companies of all sizes and vertical industries.