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Thanks to digital, communications have undergone a massive upheaval. For the past few decades we have been using 1s and 0s to conduct any type of conversation. Most people agree that it’s been a life changer.
UK communications regulator Ofcom has commissioned an online survey to investigate how being “connected” at all times has influenced the way we build and maintain relationships using the Internet
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The Unified Communications industry is usually seen as forever waiting on the launchpad, but if recent studies are any indication, UC vendors and service providers alike stand to rake in billions in the coming years.
Hexa Research offers custom research and consulting services to an array of industries, including the communications sector. The company has conducted a study to re-assess the state of Unified Communications and found that things are looking good for players in this market. In fact, “good” is an understatement.
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If there’s one thing you want to hear in business, it’s a good forecast. Today, we have one such forecast to share with everyone doing business in the Unified Communications market. Grand View Research estimates that the UC segment will be a $75 billion market by 2020. A report released by the company this month takes a deeper look at the products and their application in key areas around the globe.
Grand View Research has no doubt that the global Unified Communications market is ballooning and explains why this is happening. First on the list of reasons is BYOD (bring your own device), a phenomenon that requires little explanation. Second is the emergence of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). The research found that more and more companies
Being in the business of developing enterprise-class communication and collaboration software for over a decade, we know a thing or two about audio and video quality. User experience is crucial when it comes to UC&C solutions. You can have as many features as you like. What matters is to make the best of them.
Studies have shown that “user experience” tops the list of complaints among conferencing users. This includes both the visual experience and the audio experience. UC tools that mess up on these aspects are about as useful as an old fax machine. Without good quality audio and / or video, conferencing is more of a pain than a perk. This is why we’ve placed tremendous focus on the codec side of VoipNow.
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The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, an American motor-sport event held annually in Sturgis, South Dakota, is one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the world. Because it rakes in nearly a billion dollars in annual revenue, the event draws considerable crowds. Noisy engines and big crowds usually means at least a few incidents, so emergency responders have to be on alert.
Held during the first full week of August, the rally began in the ’30s as an event for stunts and races. Over the decades, it has evolved to become a nearly-sacred meeting for motorcycle enthusiasts from around the world. According to Rapid City Journal, emergency responders were much better equipped at this year’s rally, all thanks to a new tool.
Cloud-reliant software and services have enabled a paradigm shift for developers and service providers alike. Once based on the buy-once-use-forever concept, the acquisition of software and services has gravitated towards a licensing business model that has proved to be far more lucrative for every party involved, from the people who code the solution to the end users.
A recent report by Nemertes Research indicates that Unified Communications (UC) solutions, or Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), are selling much better as subscription bundles, as opposed to perpetual licensing which involves a large upfront investment. And it’s hardly a surprise.
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Who says Unified Communications is slow to take off? In an analysis of the North American hosted IP telephony and UC&C services market, Frost & Sullivan reports that 2014 saw 8 million installed users, with a projection of 41.9 million users installed by 2021. That number will be mostly small and medium businesses (SMBs). Next in line will be large, distributed organizations looking to streamline their communications infrastructure and IT operations, while managing a remote workforce.
As it transitions from the early-adopter to mass-adoption stage, the North American hosted Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) services market is seeing growth rates accelerating. This is mainly due to an increase in customer awareness of cloud communications benefits. Providers are now compelled to differentiate their products through innovative features as scrutiny of service quality and reliability has increased. Vendors’ focus is gradually switching to refining their UC offerings, after successfully convincing SMBs to adopt the technology.
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Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) as a technology has unquestionable perks for productivity. In some cases, a good UC&C implementation leads to new revenue streams, a goal that sits high on every CEO’s agenda, yet many are reluctant to take the plunge. The reason itself is surprising.
Business leaders are regarded as anything but fearsome, but when it comes to investing in new technologies, many executives start to get cold feet. In a whitepaper titled Build a Better Business Case for UC, research firm Forrester offers a list of fears reported by the C-suite at 133 enterprises across the US and Europe regarding implementing UC services. Here it is below (complete with our own observations):
Communication between a company’s IT department and the rest of the organization is often fragmented. We all accept that this is the norm because techies do one thing and everyone else does another. Sales, marketing, operations – they all basically require you to be human. IT requires you to be smart too. Which is why we applaud them for what they do. But every once in a while, the communication barrier between IT and the rest of the organization begs to be lifted.
In every company, big or small, there comes a point when the geeks need to come down from up above (or climb out of their basement) and hold a good old-fashioned training session. In the Unified Communications game, that time is now!
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I recently stumbled upon some lectures that talk about communication & collaboration in business, explaining its crucial role in leveling the field for executives and floor employees alike, driving successful operations across an entire organization. They were great reads and I want to lay out some bullet points for our readers. If you own a business, listen up!