Ribbon Communications Inc., a provider of real-time communications software and IP optical transport solutions to service providers, enterprises and critical infrastructure sectors, unveiled the latest findings in its annual Unified Communications (UC) survey, which measures the UC purchase drivers and buying behaviors of leaders from small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) and enterprises globally.
Responses from more than 4,500 technology decision makers across 18 countries in the Americas and Europe indicate companies continue to accelerate the adoption of UC technology in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and there is opportunity for growth in the IP-based communications market.
“The data reveals that there is still a significant market opportunity for IP communications and the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated interest in the adoption of Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) tools across the board, but particularly amongst small companies,” said Steven Bruny, EVP of Sales for the Americas at Ribbon. “The demands of the shift to remote work, and the widespread availability of popular platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom are key drivers in the increased interest in adopting UC&C.”
The survey found the three most popular UC&C platforms for supporting remote workers during the pandemic for large companies were Microsoft Teams (27%), Zoom (27%) and Skype for Business (21%). Other key findings included the number of companies planning to institute some form of remote working post-pandemic increased by approximately one-third across all business sizes: large (36%); medium (35%); and small (31%).
In addition, the number of small businesses planning to invest in UC&C solutions over the next two years increased 2.5 times from the previous year to 38 percent. Two-thirds of large companies plan to invest in some form of UC solution within the next two years.
Approximately 70 percent of respondents who intend to deploy Teams for calling say they will use Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams, which allows them to keep their existing dial tone provider and leverages Microsoft-certified Session Border Controllers (SBCs) to connect their existing phone system to Teams. The remaining respondents indicated they planned to use Microsoft Phone System and Business Voice calling plans, which allows them to make Microsoft their dial tone provider.