IP Centrex Market Opportunities in Asia Pacific

Research Overview

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled IP Centrex Market Opportunity in Asia Pacific provides an in-depth analysis of the IP Centrex market opportunities in key markets across Asia Pacific. The study identifies the market demand, service offerings, and key drivers and restraints for the IP Centrex market. In this study, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the following markets: Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea.

Market Sectors

Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the following market sectors in this research:

By Region:

• Australia
• Honk Kong
• Singapore
• South Korea

Technologies

The following technologies are covered in this research:

• IP Centrex
• Hosted IP PBX

Market Overview

IP Centrex Gaining Subscribers due to its Feature Rich Offerings

With the rapid development in Internet Protocol (IP) technology, the IP telephony market has gained traction over the past three years. The advent of IP as a carrier mechanism has added a variety of revolutionary features that were not available in earlier time division multiplexing (TDM)-based telephony solutions. "While IP private branch exchanges (PBXs) remain popular with enterprises, IP Centrex/Hosted IP PBX have the potential to achieve similar popularity as many enterprises are looking at reducing capital expenditure (CAPEX) amidst growing price pressure," according to the analyst of this study. "IP Centrex solution providers need not panic as the economies of scale that they offer through centralized service management is likely to have many takers thus securing the future growth and revenue potential of this market."

IP Centrex is also gaining subscribers as it replaces traditional Centrex, which continues to have the largest user base. The IP Centrex growth is mainly due to the increased shift to IP-based solutions. IP Centrex technology is deployed by enterprises to link their dispersed locations to create unified voice and data networks. As a result, it is best suited for multi-site corporations such as banking and financial institutions, government sector, and healthcare. There is also rising demand from single site enterprises due to increasing need for cost savings and business efficiency.

Growing Migration to IP Leads to Demand for Skilled Personnel thus boosting the Overall Market

Many enterprises across Asia Pacific are in the midst of upgrading their ageing PBXs to IP-based solutions. Amidst increasing competition, enterprises are trying to switch over from a CAPEX-based model to a hassle-free operating expenditure (OPEX)-based model. As part of the shift to OPEX, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have started to leverage on the cost benefits offered by IP Centrex for their growing telecommunications needs. However, concerns over security and quality of service (QoS) have also delayed the rapid adoption of IP Centrex.

Despite this, most enterprises lack in-house skills to manage telephony networks, and as a result, prefer to outsource such applications, which allow them to concentrate on their core businesses. "Currently, the increasing migration to IP communications, and convergence of voice and data on a unified IP network are seen as efficient ways to utilize network capacity, as well as introducing flexibility and functionality onto a traditional PBX/telephony environment," notes the analyst. "IP Centrex helps to minimize the complexity of risk management, capacity planning, internal billing, reporting, and increase business efficiency."