Virtual Office Resource

The cloud is rolling in quickly, as growing adoption rates of this transformative technology highlight its impact. A key tenant of digital transformation, this is no passing fad and some service providers are striking while the iron is hot.

Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) unveiled its European Hosted IP Telephony and UCaaS Market Forecast through 2024, offering a great deal of insight into a space that appears more than ready to explode.

“While sophisticated, feature-rich UCaaS solutions are critical for service provider success, the future is programmable communications,” said Elka Popova, Unified Communications (News - Alert) & Collaboration Programme Director. “Providers need to deliver flexible application programming interfaces (APIs) and Communications Platforms-as-a-Service (CPaaS) to hold their own against the next wave of innovations from non-UC companies. Meanwhile, competitors that employ analytics tools to combine workflow/business app data with communications stats will be able to present clients with deeper insights into business issues such as productivity bottlenecks and business process disruptions.”

In Europe, the analyst group notes the Benelux and Nordic countries early adopters will see the highest penetration with other regions like Central and Eastern European countries to experience the highest growth rates.

The report highlights specific areas where the service providers taking advantage are reaping the rewards:

• Those providing advanced features as well as flexible customization and integration options
• Those enabling solution enhancements like AI, advanced communication and collaboration or mobility
• Offering tailored solutions for a vertical or industry
• Those providing SMB with a way out of POTS with mobile-first solutions
• Service providers supporting services with SD-WAN, MPLS or broadband
• Those delivering enhanced reliability and scalability, digital customer engagement, provisioning and billing support as well customer service and support
• Those offering competitive pricing, user-friendly solutions and support necessary digital channels

“Given that the European market is not as fragmented as the US market, the entry barriers are high for smaller competitors that could potentially present innovative solutions,” noted Popova. “The consequent feature parity in hosted IP telephony offerings compels service providers to differentiate themselves through value-added capabilities such as analytics, advanced contact centres, extensive regulatory certifications, engaging interfaces, or creative services packaging and pricing.”

It’s cloud or bust for communications. Are you ready to take the plunge?