Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) Market Size, Share, Trends, & Covid-19 Impact Analysis, By Type (Telephony, Conferencing, Unified Messaging, and Others), By Organization Size (Small & Medium Size, and Large Scale), By Industry (IT & Telecom, Banking & Finance Services, Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing, Education, Government, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2021-2028

The global unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) market size stood at USD 41.83 billion in 2020. The global impact of COVID-19 has been staggering for the UC &C market, and it witnessed a flexible demand across all regions amid the pandemic. Based on our analysis, the global UC&C market exhibited a significant growth of 12.9% in 2020. This market is expected to grow from USD 47.26 billion in 2021 to USD 113.81 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 13.4% in the 2021-2028 period.

The increasing adoption of remote work drives the global unified communications and collaboration demand amid the pandemic. UC&C solutions offer effective communications for remote-working users to enhance organizational productivity and efficiency. The growth is also driven by the rising adoption of cloud services across end-user organizations. Several leading players focus on developing and launching advanced UCC solutions to enhance communication capabilities and users experience. For instance,

• In January 2021, Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS) launched “smartflo,” a cloud-based solution. This solution offers hybrid connectivity between customers, suppliers, employees, and vendors across various platforms. This seamless communication platform does not require installation charges, is easy to set up, and requires low capital expenditure.

COVID-19 Impact

Adoption of Digital Platforms for Effective Communications Promote Growth amid COVID-19

Globally, the pandemic has created potential demand for unified communications and collaboration solutions. The rise in demand is primarily due to companies' rising adoption of strategies such as remote work, implementing the bring your device by companies, and others.

Also, the levels of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic have risen steeply during lockdowns, which created ample opportunities for the players in the market to expand their offerings. The pandemic caused an increased demand for uniform collaboration tools across businesses and organizations and assisted them in restructuring their plans by leveraging digital technologies. Thus, it accelerated the adoption of communication solutions such as team collaboration, team messaging, video conferencing, and other unified communication technologies for business meetings across the globe. Suitable collaboration tools enabled this hybrid workforce to stay connected amid the pandemic.

LATEST TRENDS

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Emerging Trend Such as BYOD and Hybrid Work Model to Bolster Market Growth

Several organizations implemented the BYOD trend and adopted the hybrid work model in their business. The adoption of unified communications and collaboration tools assisted organizations to be more productive and convenient. This emerging trend has propelled the demand for unified communication tools. For instance, according to Microsoft’s Survey, 40% of organizations have adopted uniform communications & collaboration tools during the pandemic. These tools assist organizations with cloud telephony services, video conferencing SaaS, e-mail, file-storage services, and others.

Several leading companies in the unified communications and collaboration market focus on developing customized cloud-based UCC tools to cater to end-use industries such as government, healthcare, and others.

• For instance, in April 2020, Vermont Business Magazine launched “ProConnect” as the Unified Communications (UC) and collaboration solution for businesses throughout Northern New England.

DRIVING FACTORS

Increasing IT spending and Adoption of Technologies and Strategic Partnerships Among Companies to Aid Market Development

A rise in IT spending across several sectors, including healthcare, manufacturing, BFSI, and retail, would create various market opportunities for players in the market. For instance, according to the Gartner Survey, in 2020, global IT spending reached USD 3.6 trillion in 2020 and is projected to reach around USD 3.8 trillion in 2023 due to the surge in digital platform adoption and rise in digitalization.

Increasing adoption of technologies such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), real-time web communication (WebRTC), voice over long-term evolution (VoLTE), and others are boosting the demand for communications tools.

Also, prominent players are completing various strategic partnerships around the globe to expand their geographical presence. The rise in business strategies is expected to strengthen the unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) market growth. For instance,

• In April 2021, Cisco System, Inc. completed a partnership with Quickchannel. The partnership was conducted to assist enterprises in engaging employees and customers cost-efficient, sustainable, and secure.

RESTRAINING FACTORS

Interoperability Issue (Managing Devices and Security) May Hamper the Market Growth

Interoperability issues and the problem of compatibility with current devices may hinder the market growth. Frequent devices and software up-gradation is essential to efficiently utilize UC&C capabilities. Unified communications and collaboration devices and tools have interoperability issues owing to product differentiation by several leading players around the globe. This factor hampers the growth of the uniform communication and collaboration market.

SEGMENTATION

By Type Analysis

Growing Demand for Conferencing Services across Education Sectors to Drive Market Growth

Based on type, the global market is bifurcated into telephony, conferencing, unified messaging (e-mail, voicemail, SMS & fax), and others (live streaming, contact center). Conferencing is expected to develop with a substantial growth rate. The market growth was due to a surge in SaaS-based conferencing across sectors such as education, corporate and academic institutes during the pandemic. For example, according to a survey by Zoom Communication, around 88% of education professionals have deployed video conferencing tools, like Zoom, for education and training purposes.

Other segments, such as telephony, unified messaging, and others, are expected to grow with moderate growth during the forecast period due to the rising adoption of cloud services such as telephony and unified messaging in SMEs and start-ups.

By Organization Size Analysis

Development of Advanced Cloud Communication Platform to Drive Market Growth

Based on organization size, the market is bifurcated into small & medium scale and large scale organizations. Small & medium scale organizations have the highest growth for the global unified communication and collaboration market due to the increasing adoption of public cloud platforms. For instance,

• In September 2020, Microsoft Corporation launched a Communication Platform enabled with Azure communication cloud services. The company has added several features such as chat, SMS text message, voice & video calling for mobile apps, desktop applications, and websites with the help of developer-friendly SDKs and APIs.

Large organizations are expected to capture a considerable share, owing to a surge in developing cloud-based communication tools by leading players.

By Industry Analysis

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Adoption of Cloud-Based Communication Tools Across BFSI and Other Industry Aid Growth of the Market

Based on the Industry, the market is bifurcated into BFSI, IT & telecom, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, government, education, and others.

BFSI is expected to dominate the market, owing to the rising demand for banking applications to enhance digital customer experiences. UCC tools and solutions improve banking efficiency, reduce risk, and support innovation through digitalization. Several leading banks are deploying cloud-based telephony, cloud conferencing tools for effective business operations and better customer interactions. For instance, according to the IDC Report in 2020, almost 80% of the corporate banks in India are forecasted to use cloud platforms to run their trade finance and treasury workloads by 2024.

Other segments such as IT & telecom, healthcare, retail, government, and others, are anticipated to grow with a considerable growth rate through the prediction period. The growth in the sectors is attributable to the rising adoption of cloud-based communication tools.

Increasing integration of cloud services with communication tools will assist key players in catering to demand across the industry, such as IT & telecom, healthcare, retail, government, and others. For instance,

• In December 2020, Exotel expanded its cloud telephony product portfolio by receiving around USD 5.4 million funding from A91 Partners. Exotel invested in new-age technologies such as cloud, voice translation services, chatbots, caller sentiment analysis, automatic call quality assessment, and others.

REGIONAL INSIGHTS

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Geographically, the market is fragmented into five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, and South America. They are further categorized into countries.

North America is estimated to dominate the market during the forecast period. The growth is due to prominent players such as Microsoft Corporation, IBM Corporation, Siemens Enterprise Communications (Unify), AT&T, Cisco System, Inc., and others. Also, organizations across the region have embraced remote work for their employees due to the pandemic, which demands unified communications tools on personal devices. For instance, in 2020, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), an estimated around 34% of the people in the U.S. are working remotely.

Similarly, in Europe, several end-use organizations are adopting enterprise collaboration communications tools. Countries such as Germany, the U.K., France, and Italy have shown massive demand for unified collaboration tools, owing to increased online education, corporate meetings, and online event’s market during the pandemic. Also, an increase in investment by end-users’ aid in boosting the market's growth across European countries.

• For instance, according to the E-student Organization in Europe, European EdTech companies have received around USD 379.0 million from various venture capital firms, which was increased by more than 540%.

Over the last decade, the government across South America has focused on adopting techs such as cloud computing, AI, and others. Also, leading players across the region are launching cloud-based uniform communication solutions to meet domestic demand.

• For instance, IDT Brazil has launched cloud-based telephony solution legacy telephone services across Brazil. The solution features a flexible, rich, and affordable cloud-based hosted communications service powered by net2phone, IDT’s cloud-based communications business segment. These increasing investments by key players would drive the demand for UCC across the region.

Further, the Middle East and Africa region is growing at a moderate pace with the rising cloud technology adoption and rising investment towards the digital infrastructure by the leading players.

• For instance, in UAE in June 2021, Amazon Web Services collaborated with Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) to attract investments that build and adopt digital technology capabilities such as cloud computing AI and many others. These rising strategies would create opportunities for key players to expand their offerings across the region.

KEY INDUSTRY PLAYERS

Major Companies Focus on Diverse UC&C Portfolio to Strengthen their Market Position.

Key players focus on developing product portfolios by integrating advanced technologies with UCC to cater to the industry-specific demand. Major players are expanding their product portfolio by launching advanced uniform communication tools. For instance,

• July 2020 – Airtel launched a video conferencing app called BlueJeans in India. The telecom giant Airtel has partnered with US-based Verizon-owned BlueJeans to make its video conferencing app for users in India.


• August 2020 – Tevatel launched the “doocti” disruptive cloud telephony platform to revolutionize the sales support systems. The platform helps the business processes enhance collaboration, flexibility, and business continuity, enhancing sales efficiency.

List of the Key Companies Profiled:

• Cisco Systems, Inc. (California, U.S.)


• Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Washington, U.S.)


• Hewlett-Packard (Texas, U.S.)


• IBM Corporation (New York, U.S.)


• Zoom Communications (California, U.S.)


• Siemens Enterprise Communications (Unify) (Munich, Germany)


• Verizon Communications (New York, U.S.)


• Aastra (Vaughan, Canada)


• Alcatel-Lucent (Nokia) (Boulogne-Billancourt, France)


• At&T (Texas, U.S.)


• Avaya (North Carolina, U.S.)

KEY INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS:

• June 2021 – Unisys acquired Unify Square for USD 152.5 Million to optimize the collaboration experience using unified communications as a service (UCaaS). It created the most advanced and flexible enterprise-wide solution. Unify Square acquisition assisted users to enhance Unisys' digital workplace services business to drive revenue growth and improve its profitability and cash flow.


• August 2020, Microsoft Corporation made a three-year strategic partnership with Standard Chartered Bank to accelerate the bank’s digital transformation by adopting a cloud-first strategy. This partnership has made significant changes in Standard Chartered banking by using Microsoft’s uniform communication & collaboration tools for virtual banking, open banking, next-generation payments, and banking-as-a-service in reality.


• March 2019 – LogMeIn, Inc. launched GoTo, Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC) suite solutions. It is used in conducting flagship meetings and webinar solutions through GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar platforms. UCC solution also includes GoToConnect and GoToRoom conference room solutions.


• September 2018 – MetTel communications and digital transformation solution provider launched all-in-one unified communications TrueUC, (UC) hub. The TrueUC aims to interconnect critical business applications to meet the mobility and versatility of millennial workers' demands.

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The unified communications and collaboration market report highlights leading regions worldwide to understand the user better. Furthermore, the report provides insights into the latest industry and market trends and analyses technologies deployed rapidly globally. It further highlights some of the growth-stimulating factors and restraints, helping the reader gain in-depth knowledge about the market.

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