Enterprise Cloud services and mobility adoption begin to visibly transform not only the business models, but also the organizations’ working way. Employees’ addiction to very limited physical working spaces is constantly decreasing since the increasing mobility and dispersal degree of the companies, but the achieved freedom and flexibility can’t be effectively capitalized without the support of communications and collaboration solutions. It is a reality that more and more organizations are aware of (56% of large companies and 66% of small and medium – IDG), thus intending to adopt Enterprise collaboration solutions this year, orientating themselves towards hybrid and / or Cloud architectures with intensive use of telepresence technology.

In the next three years, collaboration Enterprise solutions market will reach a global value of approximately 70 billion USD, with a forecasted annual growth rate of 9.4% (MarketsandMarkets).

The market growth isn’t the result of the new technological developments launched by the vendors, but the profound transformations which will support the enterprise environment today. The following critical needs faced by the organizations are seen as the main accelerators by the analysts:

• The increased geographical dispersion of the organizations and the volume of outsourced employees, a phenomenon that intensifies the need of easy to use audio / video communications systems over IP and collaboration, which can be accessed from any device, anywhere, anytime, with a high degree of safety and low cost of ownership (TCO).
• he simplification integration processes of the audio / video system communications and the collaborative work tools between them, even those with dedicated enterprise applications (ERP, CRM, SFA, SCM, BI, etc.). This is another important requirement, especially for the organizations with rapid business growth that compels them to quickly detect and resolve interoperability issues to prevent the negative impact on profitability and risk missing opportunities in the market.
• The centralization access to information, collaboration and communication applications throughout platforms and unique interfaces. It is vital for companies concerned with ensuring high availability of business applications and data security.
• The convergence of the Social network area with mobile devices, analysis tools and cloud services. The confluence of SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud) is currently a primary condition for ensuring the efficiency of the new generation of mobile workers, accustomed to share information – both personal and professional – in real time on social networks and to use tools like Live Chat Instant or Messaging instead of the classic e-mail.

In 2013, Gartner consultation cabinet, estimated that approximately 80% of the enterprise segment initiatives of the Social and collaborative networks didn’t deliver the expected benefits, because of the unrealistic objectives and too much focus on the technology.

In the past three years, companies have learned the hard way about the “push” approach – still a traditional method in adopting enterprise solutions, ERP or CRM (users are taught how to use the applications and then forced to execute) – that isn’t suited for the social networks area, where the model ‘pull’ is more appropriate. In turn, the communication solutions and collaborative work vendors have learned their lesson, understanding that attracting users by offering flexible working tools and easily adaptable to specific needs and requirements, generate better results. The upward trend of the market demonstrates that the answers provided are solid, and that there is still room for newcomers with innovative solutions.

Currently, Cisco is the leader of the Enterprise collaboration solutions market, with a step forward ahead competition, the greatest accession registered in the last two years. According to the latest market analysis by Synergy Research, Cisco increased its share with 16% in the last quarter of 2015 when the global market value exceeded $ 9 billion.

Synergy Enterprise divides the collaboration solutions market (that includes voice applications, unified communications, telepresence and social networks for companies) in two segments: on-premises solutions and Host / Cloud applications. Cisco supremacy over the entire Enterprise collaboration market is provided mainly by the 27% share over on-premises niche solutions, followed by Microsoft and Avaya. On the other hand, the hierarchy is reversed for the Hosted / Cloud applications, Microsoft being the leader of this segment (with a market share of about 10%), seconded by Cisco and Verizon.

According to the analysis mentioned above, the Hosted / Cloud sector has scored the fastest rate of rise – 10% vs. 3% for on-premises niche applications (in Q4 2015). The rapid growth is backed up by the start-up successes, such as Slack, Cotap or Redbooth, but also by the development of the already famous players on the market, who vary and expand their offer on the go. For example, Cisco is constantly increasing its market share with the help of the new version of the Spark Cloud collaboration platform, launched late last year and the new acquisitions. The company took over Synata in March, this year, to enhance and develop the Spark capabilities of simultaneous search on information for on-premises and Cloud applications. Also, the last December, the company acquired Acano, used to enable connection and video systems integration from various vendors via Cloud services.

 

Learn more about Datanet Systems’ portfolio, in the dedicated section.
For more details please contact:
Gabriel Mușat
Technical and Marketing Manager
office@datanets.ro
www.datanets.ro