Central and Eastern European Conferencing Services Market

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled Central and Eastern European Conferencing Services Market provides an overview of the current state of development in the emerging markets for these business services in key countries of the region, and examines the potential for growth against the backdrop of turmoil in global financial markets. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the following technologies: audio conferencing, video conferencing and web conferencing. Market characteristics, including demand trends, drivers and restraints, overall revenues for 2008, and revenue forecasts to 2014 are provided for these three segments.

Market Overview

Opportunities and Challenges Abound Even as Demand Surges

The steady and consistent growth of the conferencing services market in Western Europe and North America has fuelled an interest for further geographic expansion among major participants and new start-ups alike. The rapidly developing central and eastern European (CEE) region offers exciting new growth opportunities - both for local service providers as well as for global specialist firms. However, the changing political environment and the worsening global financial crisis have complicated matters. The countries of the CEE region present their own rich set of opportunities and challenges, and the complexities of each individual market must be weighed carefully against the investment potential and the overall impact of the global recession. Indeed, the demand for conferencing services in CEE is increasing and, if investment can be sustained in the face of the global recession, then the region has the potential of becoming a major market in the near future.

"The differences in the infrastructure development, technology adoption and potential client bases are becoming more pronounced from country to country," notes the analyst of this research. "However, the globalised economy and an increase in foreign direct investments (FDI) will likely counter these challenges, and the growth rates of the conferencing market in the region will accelerate." For many years, the telecommunications sector in CEE countries had been neglected and underfinanced, with foreign companies having almost no access. Now, however, following the fall of the Soviet Union and the region’s integration with the European Union, major investments are occurring in communication infrastructure. Recently, for instance, the percentage of GDP spent on the ICT sector in Hungary exceeded that of Western Europe. The strong inflow of FDI and the influx of foreign companies has been accompanied by the need for fast and reliable ways of communication, driving the demand for conferencing services in the region.

Market Participants to Focus on Boosting Awareness

While the CEE countries represent significant growth opportunities for conferencing service providers, aspirations will be tempered by the knowledge that substantial investments in market education will be needed before conference volumes start to rise significantly. The low awareness of conferencing services among larger and small/medium-sized enterprises and in the region will delay rapid expansion.

"It will be a challenge for the conferencing services vendors in the CEE region to change the minds of larger corporations (LE) as well as small to medium businesses (SMB) in the immediate future, but face-to-face meetings will likely become history over the next several years, as new technologies take over," remarks the analyst. "Audio, video, and web conferencing offer solutions that will reduce travel costs while increasing productivity." Of those, audio conferencing services are most likely to achieve the highest potential revenue. In addition, a move towards unified conferencing and collaboration (convergence between audio, video and web conferencing services) will contribute to the rise of investments in audio conferencing.

Technologies

The following technologies are covered in this research:

• Audio conferencing
• Video conferencing
• Web conferencing
• Audio-web conferencing