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RESEARCH
ANALYSIS
TRENDS

Secured collaboration solutions by communication
service providers key to success in the next normal

IDC Asia/Pacific’s latest report, titled Asia/Pacific Other key highlights of the report:
Unified Communication and Collaboration Market
Assessment, highlights end-user adoption trends, • Cloud-based collaboration applications are on the
drivers, vendor shares and landscape, and market size rise and constitute the lion's share in the market to
facilitate the remote workforce. This is also
assessment in 2019, considering that the unified replacing the legacy segments like audio, video,
communication and collaboration (UC&C) market has and business telephone systems.
been consistently gaining traction across the world and
in Asia/Pacific following the COVID-19 pandemic. • UC&C applications are gaining traction in newer
Lockdown restrictions imposed by local governments, use-cases which were predominantly offline in
(e.g.
telemedicine,
nature
online
training,
work from home policies, and social distancing protocol government cabinet meetings, content production,
have resulted in disruption of normal life and created judicial proceedings, events, sales meetings, etc.).
the need for remote collaboration among employees
across the distributed workplace. Based on the research, the channel partner ecosystem
is also evolving with the introduction of new age
“With the impact of COVID-19, there is a requirement of channel partners. While the channel for UC&C is
developing solutions which will enable users to dominated by system integrators and value-added
collaborate seamlessly with their colleagues across resellers, communication service providers and new
hybrid work environments such as working from office, age partners (e.g. commercial real estate consultants,
on the go, and from home. With public internet being builders, and vertical experts) are here to deliver more
utilized to remotely connect with coworkers, having a scale to the vendors and superior experience to the
secure connection should be a priority. Hence, vendors.
delivering a device agnostic, user-friendly, and secured
collaboration solution will then be the key to success,” IDC's Asia/Pacific Communications Service Provider
says Abhishek Mukherjee, Senior Market Analyst for Business Transformation Strategies looks at the current
Telecommunications and IoT at IDC Asia/Pacific. telecom landscape and how communication SPs and
technology vendors can leverage their core assets to
IDC estimates the Asia/ Pacific UC&C market to reach transform their business and stay ahead of the
US$ 7.9B by the end of 2020 growing by 18% from the competition. Today's communication service providers
previous year – owing to demand from businesses and (communication SPs) are facing a double- edged sword
organizations for guidance in provisioning, supporting, in the form of a fast changing and an increasingly
scaling, and/or enhancing videoconferencing and unfamiliar market environment.
collaboration solutions for work-from-home/ remotely
working employees. With the rapid adoption of cloud- To overcome the challenges born out of rapidly
based collaboration application in the region due to evolving enterprise and consumer demands, coupled
COVID-19, the Asia/Pacific UC&C Market is expected with thinning margins from traditional telco services, the
to outpace the worldwide growth rate with its 5-year communication SPs must transform their business
compound annual growth rate of 7.1%. models, product and service offerings, and
engagement strategies. (Source: IDC) ◊

15 October 2020: Experience Economy: customer-centricity & cross-channel customer interaction