Unified communications take-up increases

Large organisations are increasing the speed at which they adopt unified communications, including IP telephony solutions, despite the economic downturn, Ovum has said.

Multinational corporations (MNCs) are implementing unified communications (UC), incorporating VoIP solutions, even though many are experiencing severe budget cuts, according to the technology industry analyst firm.

The majority of the enterprises Ovum talked to have made plans to adopt IP telephony solutions and have also partnered with a VoIP provider to aid implementation.

Many providers are introducing hosted PBX services for businesses after seeing increased interest in hosted telephony, according to Ovum's Multinationals Keep the UC Ball Rolling report.

Most big businesses are being careful in their approach to rolling out IP telephony (IPT), yet funds assigned to IPT have often been protected from budget cuts to some degree.

Ovum's report states that, with MNCs having now put a variety of UC applications in place, "integration is now key," while widening UC to mobile platforms is also taking precedence.

The Unified Communications (UC) market, which includes IP telephony solutions, will expand to be worth £18 million by 2015, Wainhouse Research said recently.