Bangkok--18 Apr--IDC
Despite political crisis and economic recession in the country in late 2013, Thailand unified communications & collaboration (UC&C) market grew in terms of revenues around 13.3% in the second half of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012, and increased over the first half of 2013 by 12.8%.
Total revenue for UC&C market had a value of U$32.1 million in 2H2013, representing 53% of total revenues generated throughout the year 2013, according to IDC 2H2013 APJ Collaborations and Video Tracker.
According to IDC, vendors usually experience a seasonal peak in the second half of the year, and the market should have had generated higher revenue growth should there have been no political crisis in the final quarter of last year. The political unrest resulted in delay of many projects delivery, lower shipments in 4Q2013, and slower spending decision by some private organizations.
Nevertheless, there were many deals for UC&C solutions and applications that most key vendors closed in the third quarter of last year. That resulted in good market performance for most unified communications & collaboration products which compensated for the slowdown in demand and shipments in the final quarter of 2013.
Lower spending from the public sector this year as a result of the political issues will result in the shift of market focus from public sector towards private sector, especially in the middle-end market and SMEs to expand customer base in this year. As a result, tailored solutions will be specifically offered to these markets to meet diverse requirements and their investment budgets.
IDC sees the market opportunity for UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) in industries that would like to miminimise reliance on IT personnel and have limited investment budget to deploy collaboration and communication systems in their organizations. These organizations will generate demand and growth of UCaaS in the country, beyond the short term.
“From the impact of massive flood in 2011 and the current political tension, crisis has been seen as opportunities by many vendors and there is a sign that many vertical markets are now seeing benefits of unified communications and collaboration deployment,” says Neeranuch Kanokvilairat, Senior Market Analyst at IDC.
Nonetheless, IDC holds an optimistic view of market growth this year, which has been forecasted to grow around 10-12% over the prior year, following IDC 2H2013 APJ Collaborations and Video Tracker. .
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