Sustaining Competitive Advantage with Enterprise Video

Transcription

1 Sustaining Competitive Advantage with Enterprise Video A whitepaper by Frost & Sullivan in collaboration with SingTel Corp.

2 Introduction NEW BUSINESS MODELS AND THE ERA OF COLLABORATIVE ENTERPRISES Market liberalization, social and political changes, security threats, resource shortages and climate change are the global trends affecting companies across the world today. To cope with these changes, various organizations have invested heavily in information and communication technologies (ICT) over the years. Businesses in Asia Pacific are expanding their geographical reach and this has resulted in an increase in remote locations and employees. There is a strong need to empower these offices and users with the tools they require to communicate and collaborate at a reasonable cost. Factors driving evolution of enterprise communications Growing adoption of Cloud and Mobility Collaboration apps, including video Centralization of IT Infrastructure The cloud computing business model has emerged as a game changer and is affecting all aspects of the enterprise. Enterprises see the move to cloud as a way to create business efficiencies, lower overhead expenses and streamline the workplace. Service Providers are keenly participating in this market segment since they have technology expertise and indebt knowledge which would be invaluable to customers. Enterprise communications has become richer, more collaborative and increasingly moving towards the cloud. Consumerization of IT Market Drivers Green/ Power Savings EVOLVING AND UNIFYING COMMUNICATIONS Most organizations use voice and solutions as the bedrock of their communication needs, and these applications are expected to remain the primary form of external and internal contact. Over the past few years, technology has advanced rapidly and communication applications have continued to evolve. New and cost-effective communications products and services have been rolled out in the market place. Enterprises today are moving from a silo structure in the way they operate their business to integrating their core competencies with their communication infrastructure, to focus on fulfilling customer need. In order to do this, it is crucial to integrate all channels of communications both within and without the organization, and in the process creating a better and more collaborative work environment. 2 P a g e

3 Rise of Cloud and Managed Services Increasing number of organizations are seriously considering hosted or managed communications services. Key benefits include operational efficiencies, standardization and faster implementation. Managed and hosted services enable a company s personnel and financial resources to focus on core business concerns and allow the company to pay only for those services it requires. Challenges in a multi-vendor and on-premise environment Managed or hosted service providers also assume responsibility for setting up, monitoring and maintaining the communication infrastructure, streamlining and offering a wide variety of other advantages. The managed service provider handles all technical aspects relating to systems integration and interoperability of IT assets. This provides organizations with greater options for advancing strategic IT initiatives, by eliminating many of the day-to-day operational tasks that often consume available technology resources. End user studies conducted by Frost & Sullivan show the high adoption of visual communications products for managed and cloud service. It is in this important aspect of driving increased usage of visual communications products that hosted and managed services have an important role to play. Increasing complexity of IT infrastructure Lack of business agility in a post-pc world Complex integration Scalability Rising upfront and maintenance costs Interoperability issues The market for unified communications (UC) as service is expected to grow to $7.53 billion in 6 years, almost 3 times its current size of $2.78 billion in the Asia Pacific region, and this includes both discrete applications such as hosted or voice, as well as integrated solutions such as unified clients that combine voice, , and rich multimedia applications such as social media or video collaboration. It also includes professional services. $2.38 Bn $2.78 Bn $7.53 Bn APAC UC Services Market Projection, Compound Annual Growth Rate ( ): 18.1% Analysis Both discrete and integrated communications application services are relevant and useful, depending on the unique business environment of each organization. Smaller organizations may be better suited to adopt a complete packaged unified communications service that includes both basic and advanced applications. At the same time, mid to large organizations may find both integrated and discrete applications such as enterprise video very useful to their enterprise. Many UC services typically also provide the option of either a simple maintenance contract, or a turn-key end-to-end managed service depending on customer need. 3 P a g e

4 Video Collaboration Comes of Age New video solutions available today are witnessing booming demand; the Asia Pacific market for Video Collaboration was worth $568 Million, with a growth of 25% year over year. Proprietary codecs Analog networks Technically oriented Standard definition Difficult to use Fully interoperable IP based Easy to use interface High Definition Immersive experience Ability of enterprises to interact with their partners and customers, outside of their own network, in a secure and reliable way leads to better business results by speeding time-to-market, improving product and service quality and opening new business opportunities. Video solutions 5 years ago Video solutions available today While having employees within an organization connect with each other, regardless of location, is important, collaboration across networks, across different platforms, in a seamless and secure manner is where the true value is. It is the ability to not only bring employees together but bring external customers and partners within an organization s ecosystem together as well, that is becoming a competitive advantage for enterprises. Video collaboration solutions have witnessed a newfound resurgence in popularity in the last three to four years that has set the growth level at 15 to 30 per cent year-on-year in the region, depending on the country and type of solutions deployed. This is partly due to the large variety of endpoints available, but also due to their maturity. Software Solutions Executive Systems Room Solutions Immersive Telepresence For mobile and desktop connectivity Hardware based solutions for executives For daily project meetings for groups Virtual & immersive meeting experience Spectrum of Video Solutions Available 4 P a g e

5 Vertical Specific Applications of Video Besides cross industry benefits such as cost benefits and improved collaboration, video is increasingly being used in vertical specific applications to improve return on investment. After deploying video solutions either as an on-premise solution or a hosted/ managed service, the most common applications are general in nature such as general meetings, sales discussions, training and others. Now vendors and service providers have introduced video collaboration solutions that are specific to a particular industry, such as in healthcare or manufacturing. For example, high-definition (HD) videoconferencing can help healthcare providers increase their level of patient care, control costs, address staffing shortages, and serve rural patients. Technologies like videoconferencing and immersive telepresence are used by educational institutions for countless applications - alumni enrolment, interactive distance learning classes, music and art performances, remote access to subject matter expertise, and research and professional development. Examples of video application by industry Banking Video banking Insurance claims Customer care Trading & investment Healthcare Tele-consultation Social care Patient movement Tele- diagnosis Education Distance learning Exeucitve eduation Virtual field trips Disabled education services The usage of video in vertical specific applications is expected to accelerate in the next 3-5 years as more organizations realize the tremendous value video can bring by being integrated into the business processes of a company. This combined with the integrated nature of video to other unified communications applications signifies a major paradigm change in how success businesses of the future will communicate and collaborate. Video communications can help Banks to improve their customer s service experience. Today video conferencing can be tailored to the Banking industry through the provision of video kiosks in branches where physical staff may not always be available. Expert staff can be located at a central point whether they are in Mumbai or Atlanta, and customers can have access to face-to-face consultation via video from their local branches as and when they need it. This way customer can still gain access to local consultation anytime and in local language. 5 P a g e

6 Deployment options Enterprises have a variety of deployment options for video applications. Many enterprises are looking at deploying a part or the whole of their infrastructure in a utility model to take advantages of features such as scalability and operational cost control as discussed previously. To this end, there are three major options for organizations: End to End Managed Service: This service engages a professional IT company with expertise and domain knowledge. (The solution may reside on-premise, which is at the customer location but equipment is either owned or leased). Service involves end to end management, covering design, consulting, implementation, maintenance and support. Hosted or Cloud Based Service: A third-party service provider, which could be a telecom operator, would offer hosted cloud based service on a utility-based model. Self Managed: This refers to a company both buying and managing its own infrastructure. The company s IT team is also responsible for the implementation and day-to-day management. Deployment Options Key Factors to Evaluate End to End Managed Service Hosted or Cloud Based Service Self Managed Simple, Flexible and Scalable (Ease of Use & High Quality Experience) Medium High Low Performance High High Medium Reliability High High Medium Maintenance and Support High Low Medium Integration with Customers Existing Infrastructure Medium Medium High Control & Ownership Medium Low High Cost-Effectiveness Medium High Medium 6 P a g e

7 Choosing the right service provider Choosing the right service provider can be critical for organizations as they look to grow their business through investment in new business models. SINGTEL INITIATIVES Enterprises are consistently looking to do more with less and as the economy continues to remain tepid, they are finding themselves in a position to make tough decisions in their effort to cut costs without compromising on the quality of service. This arrangement frees the company from having to hire staff with expertise in multiple technologies and invest in ongoing training. Telecom service providers are key market participants in offering both technology and services in video conferencing (VC). Regional Service Providers (RSP), such as SingTel are actively addressing this market segment. They have begun to focus in offering higher value added services, with Managed Video as a possible option. SingTel is well positioned with the appropriate capabilities and strengths to be a crucial market player in providing this solution due to the strength of its core network and Asia Pacific-wide presence. Businesses are taking a serious look at managed IT solutions in particularly for Video and UC. This enables them to focus on core business goals and removes the hassle of managing the technology. Customers also require the solution to be scalable, flexible, offering maximum up-time, high quality and easy to use. SingTel Video Exchange (SVE) is a managed video service which meets these requirements. Furthermore, the solution can be quickly deployed across a company network with soft client that permits integration of HD Room base video and unified communications. SingTel strategy to offer both managed and hosted VC services is a right step forward as it offers customers the choice in level of engagement for investing in the services model for communications. Organizations should partner with experienced and well established service providers which have the knowledge and understanding of customer challenges. SVE ability to proactively monitor video call quality and manage customers video conferencing end-points including software upgrades are a couple of unique features that Singtel can provide. 7 P a g e

8 Conclusion & Key Takeaways Rising competition in the global economy, increasing mobile workforce, need for collaboration across dispersed workplaces are strong drivers for implementing hosted and managed video and unified communications. With competition becoming global, fast and efficient communications are increasing vital in ensuring business competitiveness and reducing response time to customers, partners and potential business opportunities. To this end, enterprises need to consider the following points: Enterprises will need to embed communications into business processes in order to unlock productivity and efficiency. Video conferencing solutions provide the opportunity to accomplish this and ensure that key business processes are more stable and reliable. Perhaps the most important reason for enterprises to be more collaborative: it provides for an enterprise that is integrated both vertically and horizontally in order to focus intensely on a single goal customer service and satisfaction. However, key challenges still remain. Interoperability still remains a hindrance to adoption in the case of onpremise deployments. Costs of maintenance and repair are substantial and large portion of IT resources are devoted to simply maintaining day-to-day operations. This is where solutions provided by services providers help enterprises to bridge the gap between IT resource limits and every day demands of critical business processes. 8 P a g e

9 ABOUT FROST & SULLIVAN Frost & Sullivan enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. We leverage 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from over 40 offices on six continents. For more information, please visit ABOUT SINGTEL SingTel is Asia's leading communications group with operations and investments around the world. Serving both the corporate and consumer markets, it is committed to bringing the best global communications solutions to customers in the Asia Pacific and beyond. With significant operations in Singapore and Australia (through whollyowned subsidiary SingTel Optus), the Group provides a comprehensive portfolio of services that includes voice and data solutions over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms, as well as infocomm technology and pay TV. The Group has presence in Asia and Africa with 434 million mobile customers in 25 countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. To serve the needs of multi-national corporations, SingTel also has a network of offices in 20 countries and territories throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States. These offices enable SingTel to deliver reliable and quality network solutions to its customers, either on its own or jointly with local partners. SingTel employs more than 23,000 people worldwide and had a turnover of S$18.07 billion (US$13.60 billion) and net profit after tax of S$3.82 billion (US$2.88 billion) for the year ended 31 March More information can be and Disclaimer: This market insight was sponsored by Singtel Corporation. All views expresses in this market insight are the professional opinion of Frost & Sullivan and do not necessarily reflect the views of Singtel. Whilst every reasonable effort has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information by Frost & Sullivan, neither Frost & Sullivan nor Singtel can accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person and/or company on this market insight or any information, opinions or conclusions set out in this market insight. 9 P a g e