Interoperability, network concerns spur innovation

NEW YORK, USA: Growth in videoconferencing and telepresence adoption has led to a parallel market for managed services because of persistent technology and network complexities and interoperability issues.

Global telepresence and videoconferencing managed services market is set to reach $1.2 billion by 2016, a CAGR of 19 percent, finds ABI Research in its latest study.

Also Read: Managed services: The wild card for telcos

In 2010, the market, which includes hosted and managed telepresence and videoconferencing services offered by managed video services providers (MVSPs), grew by 25 percent to reach $512.5 million.

Telepresence equipment and network interoperability continues to pose strong challenges to business-to-business (B2B) collaboration. MVSPs have developed a compelling suite of services that help companies overcome the complexities associated with telepresence and videoconferencing technologies.

The growing need of enterprises to take telepresence beyond their firewalls and integrate multi-modal conferencing applications has led to the popularity of managed services.

“MVSPs are responding to market needs by launching B2B telepresence exchange services,” says senior analyst Subha Rama. “MVSPs are building core capabilities in telepresence managed services. However, expertise is still evolving, especially when it comes to integrating mobile and desktop conferencing users with telepresence rooms.”

Apart from dedicated video services providers, large telcos have identified telepresence managed services as an attractive opportunity to cross-sell their network assets by bundling them with multimedia applications such as telepresence, multi-point HD videoconferencing and real-time content sharing, adds the analyst firm.

Also, the use of mobile devices for videoconferencing requires networks to scale and provide secure access to users, which allows providers to bundle multiple services.

However, B2B telepresence exchanges are still at an early growth stage with a number of providers having launched these services only in the last 12 to 18 months.

“In terms of market opportunity, the SMBs remain a largely underserved market for telepresence, as equipment and the associated management costs are beyond their reach,” says Practice Director Dan Shey. “We need disruptive cloud-based video and telepresence service delivery models in order to catalyze market growth,” Shey adds.