- Unified messaging has come of age! After years of struggling, unified messaging is earning the reputation it deserves, from vendors and users alike. According to a new report from The PELORUS Group entitled "Unified Messaging CPE: Moving To Unified Communications", although 1999 generated $145 million worldwide (up significantly from just $70 million in 1998), explosive growth has yet to be realized. But by 2004, the market will have soared to $6.3 billion!
As of the end of 1999, competition for the market was already intensifying. As shown in "Unified Messaging CPE: Moving To Unified Communications", the top three vendors in worldwide UM seats shipped were Lucent Technologies, AVT, and Nortel Networks, in that order, with several entrepreneurial companies eager to close the gap. System shipment front-runners were Nortel, NEC, and Active Voice.
What makes UM compelling is the variety of features that render mixed-media messaging much simpler. The ability to use "terminals of choice" to access messages, including the telephone and PC, has grown to critical importance. Users receive messages from a variety of portals, whatever is most convenient at any given moment or circumstance. In the near future, this will expand to two-way pagers, video systems, and PDA, making it even easier to communicate on the fly.
Blair Pleasant, Director of Communication Analysis with The PELORUS Group notes, "The industry is now moving to the fourth generation of UM we call Unified Communications (UC). UC embraces unified messaging plus real-time call control, collaboration, media handling, voice-enabled groupware capabilities and more. UC will mark a new era of profits for both established players and emerging competitors."
The report argues that whether it is for access via the web or transport, the Internet is opening new applications for UM while adding to the complexity of the solution. The ease of use and wide-spread access to the Web enables more users to embrace the technology. According to the study, this means continued market growth and evolution
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