SIP trunking is ‘connectivity choice’ for enterprises upgrading systems, says Infonetics analyst

SIP trunking has become the “connectivity choice” for enterprises upgrading their communications systems to IP PBX and unified communications (UC), observed Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC and IMS at Infonetics Research.

Myers is predicting that SIP trunking will be the fastest growing business VoIP segment through 2017. The combined business and residential VoIP services market is forecast by Infonetics to reach $82.7 billion in that year.

In 2012, SIP trunks increased 83 percent year-over-year as multi-site businesses adopted SIP trunking to reduce costs and improve flexibility, according to Infonetics. Myers noted that in North America, SIP trunks are at less than a 15 percent penetration rate, so the market segment has plenty of room to grow.

In addition, cloud-based VoIP and UC service revenue grew 17 percent year-over-year in 2012. This compares with an overall VoIP services market growth of 9 percent year-over-year, according to Infonetics.

In an emailed response to questions, Myers explained that the advantages of cloud-based VoIP and UC services are predictable monthly expenses and no large upfront capital costs, management and upgrades provided by third parties and the ability to add or remove services and users as needed.

The growth of cloud-based UC was underscored this week by Orange Business Services’ announcement that it is offering the first unified-communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) to large enterprises on a global scale. The Business Together as a Service offering will provide enterprises with cloud-based VoIP; unified messaging; instant messaging with presence; audio, Web and video conferencing; and mobile access.

Until recently, large enterprises have been reluctant to deploy UCaaS because of concerns about quality, reliability and scalability. But apparently 3M is willing to give UCaaS a try. It signed up to be the first large enterprise customer to deploy Orange’s Business Together as a Service among its 20,000 employees at 75 sites across 25 countries. Around 16,000 seats will be rolled out at 3M sites by the end of 2014, and the remaining seats over the following three years.