Research and Markets: VoIP is Now Accepted by Businesses as the Way Forward for Voice...

Research and Markets: VoIP is Now Accepted by Businesses as the Way Forward for Voice Infrastructure

DUBLIN, Ireland--(Business Wire)--Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c78725) has announced the
addition of "Success Factors for Hosted and Managed VoIP in Europe" to
their offering.

"VoIP has become mainstream and customers of all kinds are
deploying hosted and managed VoIP services to make their voice
networks more flexible and solve their business communications
problems. Unified communications are not a priority for many of them."
- Margaret Hopkins

VoIP is now accepted by businesses as the way forward for voice
infrastructure; whenever a new system is required, both in-house and
hosted VoIP solutions will be considered. While a number of providers,
notably BT, have been offering outsourced VoIP services for some time,
the market is still getting established and there are a wide variety
of providers and an even wider variety of types of offering. Customers
range from large multinationals to the smallest start-up. Marketing
strategies vary from those that boast the exciting new features of
unified communications to those that emphasise a simple message about
flexible phone systems.

The report looks at outsourced VoIP systems for medium and large
businesses, the problems the systems aim to solve and how the
offerings available succeed in providing solutions. It identifies nine
success factors for service providers entering this market. The report
also provides forecasts for spend on VoIP voice calls and connection,
equipment and management services for France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Sweden, the UK and Western Europe from 2007 to 2012.

Success Factors for Hosted and Managed VoIP in Europe answers your
key questions:

-What do businesses want from VoIP?

-What drives businesses to consider hosted or managed VoIP
services?

-What types of problem can VoIP help businesses to solve?

-How are service providers offering VoIP solutions?

-How big is the market for hosted VoIP?

-Which customers want CPE-based services?

-What are the characteristics of a successful outsourced VoIP
service?

-Will shared-platform IP Centrex or hosted iPBXs be the preferred
model?

-Which types of business will prefer which solution?

-What is the best route to market - a distributed channel strategy
or a centralised call-centre approach?

-Is it essential to include the IP access with the VoIP service?

About the author

Margaret Hopkins is Principal Analyst with Exegesys. She started
her career in the Post Office Telecommunications Long Range Planning
Department. She has been lead author on many reports, including Beyond
Triple Play: forecasts for broadband value-added services, Scenarios
for Enterprise Mobile Data Services 2006-11, VoIP versus Mobile:
forecasts for the future of enterprise voice, The Business Case for
Carrier Migration to VoIP, The Business Case for Broadband
Entertainment, Delivering the Broadband Home, New Fixed and Mobile
Services and Devices: forecasts 2003-2008, Broadband Value-Added
Services for SMEs: market strategy and forecasts 2003-2008,
Next-Generation Networks: integrated IP architectures and IP Voice
Services: the return on investment for European service providers. She
holds a degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and a
Master's in Telecommunications and Information Systems from the
University of Essex.

Contents:

Summary

1 VoIP is becoming a mainstream product

1.1 Hosted and managed VoIP services for businesses are available
in many forms

1.2 Multinational corporations are leading the way with unified
communications

1.3 Decisions to use VoIP are based on saving money, gaining more
flexible voice systems and reducing complexity for end users

1.4 Adoption rates of hosted and managed VoIP are increasing

2 Demand for hosted and managed VoIP comes from many types of
company

2.1 Hosting is not limited to small businesses

2.2 Larger user organisations may choose a hosted and managed
solution if they have many small sites, many phones or employees who
work regularly from temporary sites

2.3 Lack of expertise drives outsourcing

2.4 Companies planning for rapid growth favour centralised
solutions

2.5 VoIP can improve ways of working, but is not often installed
for that reason

2.6 Demand for FMC will be a driver for centralised services -
companies find the mobile integration part difficult

2.7 Large companies will prefer hosted solutions, while medium
companies will prefer IP Centrex

2.8 Internet VoIP is only really acceptable for small and medium
businesses

2.9 Many businesses will not see any urgent need to adopt VoIP

3 Channels are key to the SME market

3.1 Many small IT companies are reselling hosted VoIP and IP
Centrex

3.2 Many small telecoms VARs are adding VoIP to their PBX
portfolios

3.3 Large telecoms service providers are developing VoIP solutions
for resellers

3.4 Large service providers need to develop channel structures

4 Success factors for hosted and managed VoIP

4.1 Customer education is paramount, especially for small and
medium businesses

4.2 Cost savings and flexibility are the main drivers

4.3 There is a need for integration with legacy systems

4.4 VoIP service providers should work through a trusted supplier

4.5 Access should be bundled with the hosting

4.6 Prices should be suited to the target market and the
technology selected accordingly

4.7 Integrating mobiles is important for delivering real cost
savings for user organisations

4.8 Users regard instant messaging as nice to have, but not
essential

4.9 Unified communications and email integration will be important
in the future

Actions

List of Figures and Tables

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c78725

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager
Fax: +353 1 4100 980
press@researchandmarkets.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008