New BroadSoft Survey Shows More Enterprises Embracing Cloud
By 2020, more than half of all enterprises will embrace cloud Unified Communications (UCaaS/Hosted PBX) for their unified communications, collaboration and contact center needs, overtaking premise-based PBX deployments. This prediction is based off the results of the 2nd Annual BroadSoft, Inc. survey of 130 global telecom providers and industry leaders the cloud communications leader conducted during its BroadSoft Connections 2016 event. These results only reinforce that cloud communications and cloud technologies are steadily on the rise.
Accelerated Cloud Adoption
According to the survey, the cloud-based unified communications market is expected to grow rapidly over the next several years, especially among small to midsize companies with medium-to-large enterprises rapidly catching up in adoption.
Results show that respondents believe that by 2020, the share of UCaaS/Hosted PBX will reach 51%, up 10 points from last year’s survey results. Optimism for cloud adoption in the large enterprise segment is also increasing as telcos believe that 45% of large enterprises will also deploy UCaaS/Hosted PBX by 2020. The response shows a whopping 25 percentage-point increase from last year’s survey.
Taher Behbehani, chief digital and marketing officer at BroadSoft, said the growth of cloud adoption at the expense of old PBX systems is clear and inevitable as more businesses and employees demand more mobility and flexibility.
“We’ve come to a tipping point because the old PBX systems that powered communications are on their way out and are no longer being replaced or upgraded with like for like. The cloud is viable, broadband can accommodate it, the PBX vendors are no longer around and workers need more mobility,” said Behbehani. “All of this points towards cloud adoption and digital mobile apps. We are finally reaching the stage where technology will help improve the way people work rather than dictate how they should do it,” he added.
Key Takeaways from the Survey
- Ease of adoption contributes to higher customer value - Cloud communications providers have always highlighted how the cloud is easy to use, deploy, and manage for organizations. And based on the survey, respondents highly agree with this. 76% of respondents claim that compared to on-premise systems, the cloud makes it easier for businesses to take advantage of UC features, which contribute to higher revenue opportunities and customer value.
- Native mobile integration an essential element for user experience - Another trend discovered by the survey is the increasing preference of users for native mobile integration, a feature that offers an integrated mobile experience within the device’s native mobile dialer. (Various providers have already introduced this feature to their users, such as Line2.) Among those surveyed, 89% said that native mobile integration is important for mobile UC solutions. 90% of UC business users also said they will need mobile integration.
- Cloud contact center on the rise - The survey also revealed that the contact center market is indeed ripe with opportunity as more businesses shift to cloud-based technologies. Survey participants predict that by 2020, 43%of contact center seats will be cloud based. Predictive analytics will also become an important functionality to end-users, according to 84% of respondents. BroadSoft’s findings on the increasing popularity of cloud contact centers echo what 8x8 also revealed in their report, entitled “Cloud Contact Centers Gaining Share.”
- Team collaboration becoming a key business user requirement - Team collaboration is also becoming a critical solution for respondents, with 78% saying it is an important end-user requirement in their respective markets. 95% of respondents also said that team collaboration feature integrated into UCaaS offerings shows great business opportunity for service providers.
To read the full report and the conclusions of BroadSoft’s 2016 Future of Work survey, please visit their website.
Final Thoughts
If the survey findings tell us anything, it’s that cloud communications providers today must prepare and boost their offerings in order to cater to the surging demand for cloud-based unified communications, collaboration and contact center solutions among enterprises. But with the recent activities in the cloud space, it seems like providers are doing just that as everyone--from Broadsoft and 8x8 to Jive and Avaya, and even Amazon Web Services--is beefing up their cloud offerings.
About BroadSoft
BroadSoft is a trusted cloud innovator and market leader, bringing reliable, flexible, and robust cloud communication solutions to businesses and service providers worldwide. Trusted by 25 of the world’s top 30 service providers across 80 countries, BroadSoft continues to deliver and develop solutions that redefine the future of work. BroadSoft’s comprehensive suite of solutions includes the BroadSoft Business Apps, BroadSoft Business Platforms, and BroadSoft Mobility.