Success Factors for Hosted and Managed VoIP in Europe

0. 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

• Figure 1.1 VoIP architecture owned and managed in house by the user organisation
• Figure 1.2 VoIP architecture hosted by the service provider
• Figure 1.3 IP Centrex VoIP architecture
• Figure 1.4 Internet VoIP architecture
• Figure 1.5 Flowchart of forecasting methodology
• Figure 1.6 Spend on VoIP systems in Western Europe by type in 2007 and 2012
• Figure 1.7 Users of VoIP systems in Western Europe by type in 2007 and 2012
• Figure 1.8 Total spend by category for all medium and large organisations, 2007- 2012
• Figure 1.9 New users of outsourced and owned VoIP systems in Western Europe, 2007- 2012
• Figure 2.1 Penetration of hosted and managed VoIP in large and medium organisations in Western Europe, 2007- 2012
• Figure 2.2 Spend on hosted and managed VoIP in large and medium organisations in Western Europe, 2007- 2012
• Figure 2.3 Average spend per user for hosted and managed VoIP services versus user-owned/user-managed systems in large businesses 2007 and 2012
• Figure 2.4 Average spend per user on hosted and managed VoIP services versus user-owned/user-managed systems for medium businesses for 2007 and 2012
• Figure 2.5 Share of business spend on fixed-to-fixed, fixed-to-mobile and mobile calls
• Figure 2.6 Numbers of users of fixed VoIP and FMC VoIP in Western Europe, 2007 and 2012
• Figure 2.7 Share of VoIP users on user-owned/SP-hosted and IP Centrex systems for Western Europe in 2012
• Figure 2.8 Spend on Internet VoIP services by medium companies in Western Europe
• Figure 3.1 Medium organisation spend on hosted and managed VoIP systems by type, 2007- 2012