Tag Archive for: Microsoft

Cisco, Others Face Tough Competition From Microsoft

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The PBX is losing its grip on the enterprise.

Infonetics Research said this week that unified communications (UC) investments are replacing typical PBX purchases, with North America losing the most PBX market share: The region is down double digits from 2013’s third quarter, Infonetics found.

That’s because businesses are holding off from buying new PBXs as they evaluate cloud alternatives and put money into UC applications, instead of PBXs.

“There is competitive pressure as well, but not as much as in the past,” said Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC and IMS at Infonetics Research.

Worldwide, the PBX market – which includes TDM, hybrid and pure IP – dipped 7 percent year over year in the third quarter of 2014, but it has risen 5 percent sequentially, according to the research firm. Still, compared to a year ago, PBX license shipments have dropped 2 percent. Around the globe, PBX revenue leaders are, in alphabetical order, Avaya, Cisco and NEC, Infonetics said.

But those companies face tough competition from UC suppliers, where Microsoft, purveyor of the Lync platform, stands out as the frontrunner, said Infonetics. To that point, UC applications jumped 21 percent in 2014’s third quarter, compared to the year-earlier period.

November 25, 2014 – By Kelly Teal

Microsoft’s Lync surging as PBX choice in North America

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Orlando — Microsoft’s Lync communications platform is making big gains as the IP PBX of choice, particularly in North America and particularly among larger businesses, Enterprise Connect attendees were told.

Lync ranks 11th worldwide among IP PBX vendors, but comes in No.3 in North America among businesses with more than 100 phone extensions, according to Peter Hale, principal analyst with MZA, speaking at the conference.

“Microsoft has gone from nothing to third in two to three years,” says Jerry Caron, an analyst with Current Analysis. “It’s become a very significant player in a very short period of time.”

Cisco ranked first worldwide, edging out No.2 Avaya by just 1 percent, but in North America among large businesses, it blew away the field. Cisco sold 44 percent of the phone extensions, he says, with Avaya pulling down 20 percent. Microsoft landed 13 percent, Hale said.

The number for Lync represents phone extensions actually deployed, not those sold, he said. Because Lync comes bundled with other software and includes communications besides IP telephony, the number of licenses sold is actually higher, he said.

One problem Lync could face is the decline of the PC, Caron says. Part of its success so far may be that most corporate desktops run Microsoft software. As businesses use other devices, notably mobile devices, for their main computers, that could change, he says.

Cisco’s worldwide lead in phone extensions is slight and fragile. It holds 13 percent this year, down from 14 percent last year. Avaya is breathing down its neck at 12 percent, the same percentage it scored last year.

Cisco dropped 2 percent in its North American large-business sales from 46 percent to 44 percent from 2012 to 2013, Hale said. During the same period Avaya went from 19 percent to 20 percent. Microsoft went from 12 percent to 13 percent.

Author:  Tim Greene @ Networkworld

 

Trends in UC and PBX

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Unified communications market up 27% from a year ago; PBX market continues to take hits

—Market research firm Infonetics Research released its 1st quarter 2014 (1Q14) Enterprise Unified Communications and Voice Equipment report, which tracks PBX phone systems, voice over IP gateways, unified communications (UC) applications, and IP phones.

ENTERPRISE TELEPHONY AND UC MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

  • Worldwide PBX revenue (TDM, hybrid, and pure IP) is down 8% in 1Q14 from 1Q13, and down 8% from 4Q13
  • The unified communications (UC) segment is the lone bright spot, racking up a 27% worldwide revenue increase in 1Q14 from the same period a year ago
  • Although there are pockets of growth in parts of Europe and South America, along with strength down market, none of it is large enough to lift the overall PBX market
  • CALA (the Caribbean and Latin America) is the only region to notch positive year-over-year PBX revenue growth in 1Q14, as economic activity picked up in anticipation of the World Cup
  • Cisco, Avaya, and NEC are the PBX market share leaders; Mitel cracked the top 4 as a result of its merger with Aastra Microsoft, who leads the UC market, is the only vendor in the enterprise telephony segment to post year-over-year revenue growth in 1Q14

ANALYST NOTE
“The enterprise telephony market continues to struggle as businesses hold off new PBX purchases and invest instead in unified communications (UC) applications. Purchase cycles are getting longer, and competitive activity is putting pressure on the market with pricing all over the map,” notes Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research.

Training Tip: Knowledge is More Than Power…It’s Capital

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KnowledgeSS-Post

Organizations are routinely valued based on their intellectual capital (i.e. what they know). Intellectual capital fuels a company’s competitive advantage and boosts its market value.

For a company like Microsoft, their $280 billion market value far exceeds the value of its physical assets, because it includes their ideas, concepts and knowledge as intellectual capital.

While your company may not equate to Microsoft, there are strategic ways to boost your intellectual capital, including providing training for your employees. Training is one of the chief methods of maintaining and improving intellectual capital because it increases the overall wealth and quality of knowledge your company can leverage when doing business.

Given the benefits of training, which include continued employee education, don’t you think it is strange that the average US employer spends very little on this investment? Perhaps accounting standards’ classification of training as an expense instead of what it actually is – an investment – causes this discrepancy!

How much do you invest annually in employee training?

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