Global Demand For Visual Collaboration Managed Services On Rise

Visual collaboration, after years of constant challenges, became a technology that businesses regarded as difficult and unlikely to be used on regular basis.

However, a perfect storm of technological, economic, and environmental developments has brought visual collaboration to the forefront again. To capitalise on this prospect, vendors should be aware of their customers’ applications and requirements in order to develop products, which fulfill clients’ needs. They should also focus on leveraging relationships with strategic channel partners, who are successful in providing visual collaboration equipment.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, World Visual Collaboration Managed Services Markets, finds that the market earned revenues of $82.7 million in 2008 and estimates this to reach $938.3 million in 2015, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 162.4 percent.

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“A driver that is most likely to contribute to the growth of the visual collaboration market is the reduction of travel required by a company,” notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Iwona Petruczynik. “This can create significant cuts in business costs and help improve productivity levels; employees can conduct their businesses without the need to meet face-to-face with their clients or partners. New models offered by service providers that do not require up-front capital expenditure (CAPEX) by customers are also adding to the widespread adoption of visual collaboration services globally.”

In addition, growing concerns about the environmental impact of business operations are motivating companies to look toward eco-friendly solutions that will not require a large investment. Another factor that significantly adds to the rising adoption of visual collaboration services in general is the dispersed workforce that needs to stay in touch with each other and their clients. The recent swine flu pandemic has proved that using online collaboration tools, including visual collaboration, has helped in preserving business continuity.

Until recently, visual collaboration services were perceived to be a privileged tool for the use of the upper management, as they were believed to be difficult to deploy and required extensive training. However, with the emergence of managed services, visual collaboration has been simplified to a click of a button.

A major challenge that high-end visual collaboration services providers have confronted is low awareness about the benefits and ease-of-use of visual collaboration tools among business leaders. A common misconception, quite prevalent until recently, was that such tools and services were difficult to use, required extensive expertise, and were reserved mostly for upper-level executives.

This was compounded by the glaring lack of interoperability between devices and networks provided by different vendors. Lastly, the shortage of display rooms in certain regions, especially in Europe, added to that misconception, as potential clients did not have the opportunity to experience high-end visual collaboration at first hand.

“Despite the increase in interest in visual collaboration managed services, business leaders in less developed countries still prefer to meet in person to conduct their business,” states Petruczynik. “Moreover, current networking and compatibility issues limit the interconnectivity of different visual collaboration systems with traditional videoconferencing systems and other managed services solutions from different vendors, demanding the development of consistency-of-quality.”

Visual collaboration managed service providers will likely experience some pricing pressure in the coming years in the more mature markets, but mostly in the emerging markets, where prices have further to fall. Additionally, increasing automation will lead to lowered demand for managed services. In order to fight this fall, vendors will have to expand their offers and include new or upgraded features.

“Rising interest in high-definition and immersive visual collaboration is leading to increased competition among value-added resellers and equipment vendors, fuelling pricing pressure which, in turn, will contribute to falling prices,” cautions Petruczynik. “Service providers will need to improve their product portfolios to create a one-stop-shop for managed services.”