Description

The study aims to guide buyers in selecting the appropriate conferencing solution that matches their requirements. The conferencing services market is highly commoditized and fragmented. It is comprised of a number of participants with varying portfolios and customer bases. Typically, providers in this space differentiate themselves based on service/solution stack and bundling options, price, ability to handle complex deployments, deployment options, service support, and strength of infrastructure, among other attributes.

Audio, video, and web conferencing services provide multiple benefits to customer organizations as they greatly simplify and enhance collaboration among employees. The UC adoption cycle could vary significantly in enterprises and small and medium-size companies. These end users could be at different points in the UC adoption cycle. Nevertheless, at every stage, the stakeholders should adopt a methodical approach and be completely aware of multiple offerings from service providers and their competitive highlights before making a purchase decision.

Research Scope:

· Core portfolio offerings of conferencing service providers in hosted audio, web and video conferencing; and managed video conferencing segments.
· Also includes a brief snapshot of unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) offerings, if any, where conferencing is an integral part of UCaaS.
· Key capabilities of different service offerings of conferencing service providers
· Analysis of service providers’ strengths and concerns to be aware of by the end user before making a purchase decision
· Recommendations in terms of best fit and caution guidance to buyers

Because there are many providers now competing in this space, we have narrowed our scope to profile a diverse cross-section of top providers based on revenues, infrastructure deployment models, and willingness to participate and share information for this study, based on available offerings in the year of 2016. This study covers 12 provider profiles including: Arkadin, BlueJeans Network, BT Conferencing, Cisco, Interoute, LoopUp, Microsoft, Orange Business Services, PGi, Telefonica, West, and Zoom.

Key Questions This Study Will Answer:

· What are the key factors that differentiate service providers from their competitors?
· Who are the leading conferencing service providers in EMEA in terms of portfolio breadth, infrastructure backup, partner network, versatility in features and functionalities, interoperability with other endpoints/devices?
· How is their product line spread across audio, video, and web conferencing segments? Do they have any UCaaS capabilities and how tight is the integration of conferencing platform with UCaaS?
· What should buyers consider when evaluating these providers?
· Do providers have any service offerings for SMBs as against large businesses?
· Are the providers beefing up their solution stack based on proprietary or partner capabilities?
· Were there any acquisitions in the recent path that bolstered the service provider’s positioning in this market?