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Distinctions between unified communications and collaboration will no longer exist by 2013, according to Jeff Mann, Gartner (News - Alert) vice president. And only about half of all current suppliers in either space will be unable to meet the full range of needs by 2013, as well, he said.

 

Though business end-users typically treat voice, messaging, conferencing, instant messaging, presence, applications, clients, social networks and collaboration tools as "point" applications, they will not do so in the future, Mann said.

 

Organizations today deal with multiple products and vendors performing overlapping communications and collaboration functions, but that won't be the case in the future, he said.

 

Perhaps oddly, it is consumer markets that are driving the changes in the business market, he said. Of particular note is the desire to use personal products in the work setting. It is that trend that is introducing new levels of volatility into the market, allowing some non-traditional suppliers an opportunity to enter the market.

 

Gartner predicts that the global UCC market will reach $7.4 billion in 2009, a 22 percent increase from 2008. Microsoft, IBM and Cisco (News - Alert) accounted for more than 30 percent of the total market in 2008, Gartner estimated.

 

“The vendors that survive consolidation will be those that can provide more of the collective components of UCC that previously existed separately,” said Steve Blood, Gartner vice president. “The move to UCC threatens the established status quo between traditional voice and data vendors. It also presents a significant opportunity for public portal vendors such as Yahoo, MSN, Google (News - Alert) and AOL to gain fee-based traction in the corporate market.”

 

On the other hand, venerable telecoms vendors such as Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya and Aastra will struggle to remain relevant as organizations increasingly seek rich and integrated UC and collaboration services, Blood said.