Consensus on Unified Communications Guides Network Innovation

According to CCID Consulting, China's unified communications market failed to achieve the expected rapid growth in 2007 as manufacturers paid more attention to technical expansion and application realization but ignored user demand and application environment. Large-scale enterprises with better IT application basis shifted their attention to network applications after acquiring relatively complete network and technology facilities. These enterprises look for reducing cost of internal communication, improving work efficiency and improving operating mechanism with unified communications products, while the high price of unified communications is still the biggest obstacle blocking medium and small-scale enterprises.

However, it is generally believed that network convergence and unified communications have become the trend of future networks. In CCM 2008 held by CCID Consulting on March 12, more than half of well-known communication enterprises at home and abroad, such as Cisco, Nortel, ZTE and Maipu, chose to lecture on unified communications. For instance, Cisco expounded on digital media market prospect and applications under unified communications, ZTE aired its views on unified information security architecture and AVAYA deemed that unified communications could enhance work flow, almost the same as the views of Nortel.

Meanwhile, both leading network equipment manufacturers and noted analysis organs have shifted their focus to the development of unified communications in 2008 and the following five years. Five core products, namely voice mail, PBX, email and scheduling, IM and conference and collaboration will be accepted by more and more peopled during daily works and life.

It is forecasted by CCID Consulting that China's unified communications market in 2008 would present such characteristics as that products can further meet user demand, technology convergence would be further improved, manufacturers tend to make in-depth cooperation and market scale would achieve steady growth. The unified communications market will develop from cultivation stage to rapid growth stage in 2010 and the market scale would reach 14.04 billion Yuan by 2012.