North American Enterprise Messaging Markets

SUMMARY

Convincing Return on Investment Model Required to Popularize Unified Messaging Solutions

The end-user perception of unified messaging (UM) as a high-priced technology is overshadowing its significant contribution to enterprise productivity. For instance, UM offers employees the convenience of accessing e-mail, voicemail, and fax messages through a single interface - resulting in time savings and ultimately, increased revenue. Since the benefits are not easily quantifiable and the technology is relatively new, presenting a viable business case to push UM adoption is likely to be a significant challenge. In future, a combination of factors including awareness campaigns and increasing compatibility with existing voicemail and e-mail packages are expected to drive growth in the UM market.

This Frost & Sullivan research examines the North American enterprise messaging market with an emphasis on UM solutions. It also discusses the significant market challenges, drivers, and restraints that UM vendors face and provides strategic recommendations for them to increase their presence and profitability in the enterprise UM space.

Increasing Deployments of IP Telephony Drive Adoption of UM Systems

Migration of enterprises toward an Internet protocol (IP) infrastructure is a major driving force for the UM market. In addition to offering end users potential cost-savings, the transition to IP also benefits UM vendors in terms of easier integration over a converged voice and data infrastructure. "With IP as the underlying network, vendors are able to provide advanced real-time communications capabilities in addition to basic UM functionalities at a reasonable cost," explains the analyst.

Since most end users are focusing on departmental or modular shifts to IP, UM vendors need to develop solutions that start with the basic features that can then be molded to meet the specific needs of enterprises. UM solutions also need to be flexible and extremely scalable. Some vendors are already addressing this need by providing higher port capacity or the capability of clustering servers that can support more users per deployment.

Unified Communications Likely to be the Future of UM Systems

In addition to basic UM features, vendors are including real-time communications capabilities into their solutions portfolio to increase the addressable market and differentiate their offerings. "As the UM solutions gain mainstream acceptance, applications are expected to be sold in conjunction with telephony equipment or as part of a broader unified communications portfolio that enterprises are deploying," says the analyst.

Unified communications (UC) is expected to provide a whole range of functionalities including access to the corporate database, presence management, personal assistant, and call filtering. In future, vendors will be seeking to provide UC suites capable of working in tandem with customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning applications. UC applications are also expected to provide pervasive multi-modal communications by integrating with instant messaging, and audio, video, and web conferencing technologies.

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To maximize the potential for growth within a firm's internal and external environment, Frost & Sullivan consultants can facilitate the creation of strategic programs that deliver improved market success. Frost & Sullivan's strengths lie in combining strategic understanding with market expertise and applying these with absolute commitment to its clients' growth.

Benefits of this Service

Strategic Recommendations Assist in Targeting New Growth Opportunities

With the increasing adoption of unified messaging (UM), vendors need to concentrate on specific niche markets to achieve maximum growth. This analysis provides information on the potential opportunity available for UM vendors in the mobile and telecommuters customer segment. It also provides strategic recommendations for helping vendors in extending their reach into the relatively untapped small and medium business segments. The growth or decline of any market necessitates changes in the product portfolio and marketing strategy.

Revenue Forecast Provides Improved Accuracy in Business Planning

It is necessary to thoroughly understand the state of the market and have an idea of the future growth patterns. In addition to a comprehensive analysis of the North American enterprise unified messaging market; this research service uses a revenue forecast model based on market drivers and restraints to provide a clearer picture of future opportunities. This is likely to aid vendors in charting their business plans in a timely and accurate manner.

Vendor Profiling Allows Participants to Handle Competition Effectively

This analysis provides vendor profiles for all the major competitors in the UM market. With the help of such a consolidated list, participants can estimate what to expect from their competitors, and hence, prepare themselves for any contingencies.

Insight into Market Trends Serves as a Basis for Future Business Strategies

Extensive market insights into current and future trends throw light on the challenges and opportunities vendors can expect to encounter in this market. A detailed analysis of the market and technology trends provides valuable input to the vendors for their business development strategies. Vendors can use this information to enhance their solutions according to the potential opportunity and thereby maximize growth.

Market Sectors

Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the use of nanotechnology in the following market sectors:

• Enterprise UM Solutions
• UM Service Provider Solutions
• UM Services
• IP and TDM Telephony
• Telephony-based Speech Technology and Solution

Technologies

The following technology is covered in this research:

Unified Messaging: This is defined as an application that offers ubiquitous access to voicemails, e-mails, and faxes through a single interface. UM applications enable efficient management of messages and include functionalities such as prioritizing according to sender, storing, deleting, and forwarding of e-mail, voice, and fax messages. The user can choose to access the messages, either using a graphical user interface (GUI) or a telephony user interface (TUI). The GUIs include desktop PCs, internet browser-enabled terminals, internet-enabled laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), web interfaces, and any other web-enabled device. The TUIs include wire line and mobile phones.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. North American Enterprise Messaging Markets

• 1. Introduction and Definitions
  • 1. Scope of Study
  • 2. Research Methodology
  • 3. Product Definition
• 2. State of the Messaging Market
  • 1. Adoption
  • 2. Pricing
• 3. Market Characteristics
  • 1. Market Challenges
  • 2. Key Market Trends
• 4. Market Analysis
  • 1. Market Drivers
  • 2. Market Restraints
  • 3. Market Engineering Metrics
  • 4. Revenue Forecasts
• 5. Competitive Analysis
  • 1. Competitive Structure
  • 2. Total Messaging Market Share Analysis
  • 3. Messaging Vendor Profiles
• 6. Strategic Recommendations
  • 1. Success Factors and Timeframe of Impact
  • 2. Strategic Recommendations for Vendors
• 7. Frost and Sullivan Awards
  • 1. Frost & Sullivan Award for Distribution Strategy
  • 2. Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Leadership
  • 3. Frost & Sullivan Entrepreneurial Company Award
  • 4. Frost & Sullivan Award for Business Development Strategy
  • 5. Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation