IDC: Unified communications will keep growing

Unified communications is expected to experience strong growth in some verticals despite the economic climate, according to IDC.

A report from the analyst firm claims education, health, government and retail/wholesale industries will experience a growth rate in UC adoption of 18-20 per cent.

IDC telecommunications analyst, Jason Leung, said the growth would be spurred by the need for these verticals to refresh technology around the space.

“It’s not to say these verticals have in no way adopted the technology, but we’ll see some major growth as the technology moves out of early adopter stage into the mainstream,” he said. “The nature of the industries, in terms of the benefits that the mature UC solutions can offer, means they’re now seeing value in terms of ROI and TCO.”

Early adopters for UC have been in finance, insurance and transport. The growth will not be slowed by the economy, either, Leung claimed, as the verticals would not be as heavily impacted by the downturn.

“There comes a point in time where a technology refresh becomes a requirement to maintain a competitive advantage,” he said. “We believe that time is now for these verticals.”