|
|
 |
|
Viewing report
|
|
|
|
European Web Conferencing Services Market
Frost & Sullivan, Aug 2008, Pages: 71
Environment-friendliness and Cost Benefits Promote Adoption of Web Conferencing Service Solutions
Continued globalisation and the trend of virtualisation will drive the growth of conferencing and collaboration. The emergence of Web 2.0 applications and the expanding use of blogs, wikis, virtual spaces and social computing are bringing major shifts in how people communicate, fostering new social behaviour, business models and cultures. Real-time collaboration is increasingly being recognised as a key enabler of performance. Organisations are prioritising technology investments for real-time collaboration tools, including web conferencing, to meet the new business imperatives of enhanced productivity and reduced costs. At the same time, organisations are increasingly realising the importance of environmental sustainability and business productivity. Web conferencing offers organisations an attractive way to adopt a ‘greener’ policy and effectively limit their carbon emissions. All these trends are giving a fillip to web conferencing solutions and related services.
'Web conferencing is a particularly appealing service for organisations in Europe due to its dual purpose of helping enterprises fulfil their social responsibility to the environment and reducing travel costs dramatically,' comments the analyst of this research. 'The web hosted services segment is the hot growth segment and is on the rise across all European countries, with high growth rates being attributed to heightened awareness of web conferencing and increased vertical and SMB penetration.' The overall global macro economic environment is motivating the mainstream adoption of real-time collaboration. The skyrocketing prices of oil, paralleled by stricter European environmental laws and global economic slowdown, are compelling organisations to reduce business travel and overall costs. In this context, web conferencing and collaboration solutions not only deliver significant cost-saving advantages, but also enable enterprises to be more environment friendly.
Integration of Applications, Ease of Use and Pricing are the Keys to Competitive Success
In 2007, the European web conferencing services market generated $148.1 million, displaying a higher than the predicted growth rate of 37.2 per cent over the previous year. The market is anticipated to expand to $1,145 million by 2014. The web hosted services segment is the hot growth segment and is on the rise across all European countries. The major challenges for vendors in the region are mounting pricing pressures and low awareness of web conferencing in mainstream markets. Additionally, the European market is getting increasingly competitive with both major international conferencing participants as well as a large number of established local companies. The European market is highly fragmented and vendors need to provide high levels of local language integration and support for their solutions.
A wave of consolidation continues to affect the web conferencing market. The number of independent web conferencing service providers is reducing as a result of acquisition by larger competitors. The market has become increasingly aggressive and there is intense competition among global and larger European market participants. The largest country markets of Germany, France and the United Kingdom are still displaying healthy growth rates, while the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe represent untapped potential and expansion possibility, but the region suffers from various infrastructure, social and political barriers. Enterprises are also migrating from buying standalone solutions to purchasing comprehensive communication and collaboration solutions that are integrated with other business applications. 'The web conferencing market is very dynamic, with vendors continuously focused on innovation,' remarks the analyst. 'However, as the market develops, integration will emerge as the major differentiation between web conferencing solutions, along with pricing and ease of use.'
This Frost & Sullivan research service titled European Web Conferencing Services Market provides a comprehensive analysis on the relatively new area of web conferencing. It explores the major drivers and restraints governing web conferencing, and examines the web conferencing hosted services segment.
Customers who bought this item also bought
European Hosted Web Conferencing Services Market
Western European Conferencing Services Market
Central and Eastern European (CEE) Conferencing Services - A Market Insight
Central and Eastern European Conferencing Services Market
European Videoconferencing Endpoints Market
European Internet Software Markets
European Hosted IP Telephony Services Market
Conferencing & Collaborative Services - Global Strategic Business Report
Videoconferencing - Global Strategic Business Report
Mamut: Delivering SME Solutions on a Software+Services Vision
Strategies for Selling More to SMEs: Analysis of demand for broadband managed services and service bundles
E-Learning - Global Strategic Business Report
|
|
|
|
