“SMBs in North America have shown resistance to adopting full UC solutions, not realizing that they already pay for a number of the individual components”, says Brian Galgay, Manager of Cloud Services at AMI.
Galgay recommends that North American service providers segment their UC portfolio, targeting a range of SMBs from basic single-point solutions users to full UC solution customers and all segments in between.
Most providers today offer either a full UC suite or only operate in specialized areas of voice, conferencing, or messaging services.
More often than not, SMBs opt out of the full UC solution and patch together a mix from these fragmented offerings.
“Most SMBs need several UC components on a daily basis, but not necessarily all elements of a complete solution. Currently, few vendors are willing to break apart their full UC suite,” Galgay says.
Over the next five years, the SMB opportunity for UC components in North America is expected to more than double, Galgay argues.