Global economic problems will cause a slowdown in spending in the IP contact center (IPCC) market in 2009, according to Infonetics Research.
The communications market research firm reports that while the overall Unified Communications and IPCC markets will experience a downturn, the IPCC and communicator segments will weather the economic downturn better than others.
Infonetics said sales of UC products ended mixed in 2008, with unified messaging platform sales up and communicator software sales flat.
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| Matthias Machowinski, analyst, Infonetics Research |
Overall, the IPCC market finished 2008 up 37 per cent over 2007, with many vendors reporting robust sales, particularly in Asia Pacific.
Worldwide, businesses bought USD $851 million in IP contact center equipment in 2008, up 37 per cent from USD $622 million in 2007, based on the report.
The 2008 numbers are based on actual sales numbers for the first half of the year and projections for the second half.
Current economic conditions make repeating this level of activity virtually impossible.
Matthias Machowinski, Infonetics Research’s directing analyst for enterprise voice and data, said the communicator market continues to be fluid.
He said growth was not yet following established patterns and market share positions were shifting one period to the next as PBX vendors battle each other and Microsoft.
"It’s an exciting market to watch, and one that should thrive in 2009, even as the overall enterprise telephony market declines due to the economic environment," he said.
"Similarly, the IPCC market will slow down in 2009, but should do relatively well as customers find IP contact centers, self service, and automation cost effective ways to deliver on customer service."
Other report highlights:
- In 1H08, over a million IPCC seats were sold worldwide
- Avaya still leads the IPCC market by far in 1H08, but lost share to Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent
- Nortel takes the lead in unified messaging license market share in 1H08, while Avaya maintains its lead in revenue market share; Cisco is now a close 3rd for both
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