IP Telephony Outlook in Western European Vertical Markets, an IDC Survey

This study draws on the results of IDC's European Vertical Market survey, carried out between May and August 2010 in the top 5 Western European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K.) among 2,194 companies with more than 20 employees. The survey looks at vertical market IT spending directions, IT solution adoption, solution priorities and investment plans, adoption and plans for mobile/wireless solutions, familiarity, adoption, and plans for a range of technologies including virtualization, storage, and server consolidation, networked storage, green datacenters, SOA, and IP telephony.

This study focuses on Western European vertical markets' familiarity with IP telephony, current deployment, and short-term adoption plans. It also investigates companies' key perceived benefits of IP telephony and the key obstacles to adoption. Results are given for total Western Europe for the following vertical markets: financial services (including banking and insurance/other finance); discrete manufacturing; process manufacturing; business services/transport; telecom/media; utilities/oil and gas; retail/wholesale; healthcare; and government/education.

"Saving costs in voice and data communications will remain a key driver, especially in some of the industries, such as government/education, healthcare, and process manufacturing, where adoption of IP telephony is anticipated to grow the fastest. Nonetheless, Western European companies are increasingly realizing the benefits of related IP services, starting from the most mature industries, such as telecom/media and utilities/oil and gas, but also in government/education and business services/transport. Unified communications will increasingly be a driver, calling for a joint approach to IP communication and enterprise collaboration," said Giacomo Laurini, senior research analyst, European Vertical Markets.