Research firm MarketsandMarkets expects the worldwide unified communication and collaboration market to grow from $67.4 billion this year to $127.5 billion by 2026, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.6 percent.
Increased demand for cloud-based solutions and services during COVID 19, increased demand from both large enterprises and smaller companies, growing trends toward mobility, and the emergence of cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence, are driving the growth, according to the research.
The research also found that the UC managed services segment holds the largest share in the unified communication and collaboration market. The UC managed services are fully transparent, co-managed services for on-premises or cloud UC infrastructure.
Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for professional, comprehensive UC managed services has increased as it has alleviated the workload placed on IT, all while ensuring business continuity and customer communications, it said.
The market is undergoing significant technological transitions, such as collaboration with social media, real-time solutions, and the use of mobile devices, according to the research, which also found that UCC solutions offer affordability and high economies of scale.
UC deployments fit well in businesses with growing remote workforces, it also said, noting that having UC applications centrally located in a public-facing cloud enables remote users to access UC services from virtually anywhere in the world without the need for remote access to the VPN software to connect to the corporate network.
The on-going demand is for cloud-native development, and the hybrid era will typically be transitional as UCC applications designed and created for public clouds will be the future, MarketsandMarkets also concluded.