InfoTrack for Unified Communications

Transcription

1 InfoTrack for Unified Communications Impact of Microsoft Lync on the Enterprise Voice Market 2014 June 2014 A T3i Group Market Intelligence Program Focused on Unified Communications Enterprise and SMB Markets IP Telephony Systems UC Applications Converged Services

2 InfoTrack for Unified Communications: Impact of Microsoft Lync on the Enterprise Voice Market 2014 A T3i Group Series of Primary Research Studies on the Market Demand for Unified Communications Infrastructure and Applications T3i Group LLC 210 Malapardis Road Cedar Knolls, New Jersey USA T3i Group provides market research, analysis and advisory services to the business communications industry. It has clients in every global region and operates three lines of business: InfoTrack monitors and analyzes shipment, revenue and market share data for global enterprise telephony, unified communications, messaging and contact center shipments. InfoTrack provides a comprehensive view of market sizing and installed base by technology and manufacturer. InfoTrack for Unified Communications provides a demand based view of customer adoption of unified communications applications over time. Tactics provides easy access to detailed feature comparisons for business communications products and services. Tactics databases enable users to review product and service feature descriptions and information for over 1,000 telephony, collaboration and unified communications products. The product profiles are presented in an easy-to-use, side-by-side comparison tool. Tarifica is the global leader in Telecom competitive pricing intelligence. Covering 450 operators in 130 countries, Tarifica s database of PSTN, Leased Line, Ethernet and Wireless voice and data service tariffs is the largest in the world. Each of these programs is backed by a staff of expert industry consultants who provide clients with insightful analysis, market briefings and advisory services. For information on this report, or other T3iGroup products and services, please contact: Ken Dolsky at [email protected], Copyright All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying) or stored in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication without the written prior permission of the copyright owner. Application for the copyright owner s permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the contact and address referenced above. Every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information presented in this report. However, T3i Group cannot accept liability for the consequences of action taken based on the information provided. Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 2 of 85

3 TABLE of Contents LIST of EXHIBITS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY... 8 How Have Plans to Trial Microsoft Lync Changed Since A Year Ago?... 8 Do the Trials of Microsoft Lync Include Enterprise Voice?... 9 What Is the Anticipated Adoption Rate of Lync Enterprise Voice? Why are Businesses Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice? How Did Actual Costs Compare with Expectations for Implementation of Lync EV? How Extensively Are Firms Planning to Deploy Lync Enterprise Voice? What is the Actual Penetration of Lync EV Licenses Within Employees of U.S. Enterprises? What is the Actual Penetration of Lync EV Licenses Within Employees of U.S. SMBs? What is the Projected Penetration of Lync EV Licenses Over the Next Few Years? Where Does Microsoft Rate Among Preferred Vendors for IP-PBXs? Where Does Microsoft Rate Among Preferred Vendors for UC Apps? INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY Scope of InfoTrack for Unified Communications (IUC) Program Leadership Primary Research Methodology ANALYSIS OF ENTERPRISE PLANS FOR MICROSOFT LYNC ENTERPRISE VOICE Demographics of Enterprise Survey Participants Distribution of Participating Enterprises by Type of Decision Maker Distribution of Participtaing Enterprises by Type of Industry Enterprise Position on Microsoft Software Products and Services Enterprise Status on Trialing Microsoft Lync Percent of Enterprise Microsoft Lync Trials that Include Enterprise Voice Enterprise Perception of Microsoft Capabilities for Enterprise Voice Performance of Enterprise Voice during Microsoft Lync Trials Enterprise Perspective on Startup Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Enterprise Perspective on Ongoing Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Enterprise Plans for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Enterprises' Top Reasons for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Factors that Fell Short of Enterprises Expectations in Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Enterprise Problems in Scaling Lync with Enterprise Voice Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Large Enterprise Enterprise Projected Deployment of Licenses for Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Enterprise Scope of Planned Deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Enterprise Organization Responsible for Decision to Deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice Enterprise Ratings of Microsoft Dealers in Terms of Voice Expertise Resources Used Extensively During Deployment of Lync with Enterprise Voice Enterprise Familiarity with Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Perception of Whether Enhancements Meet Enterprise Needs Likelihood of Enterprises Implementing Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Effect of Skype Acquisition on Decision to Implement Lync with Enterprise Voice Likelihood of Implementing Skype Functions during Next Few Years Enterprise Plans for Replacing/Retaining Existing Telephony Systems During Lync Deployment Enterprise Distribution of Endpoints on Deployed Lync Systems with Enterprise Voice Page Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 3 of 85

4 Primary Method for Enterprises Connecting to the PSTN for Lync with Enterprise Voice Agreement Regarding Use of 3 rd Party Session Border Controllers/Enhanced Gateways Enterprise Plans for Voic on Lync with Enterprise Voice Enterprise Preferred Vendors for IP-PBXs Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Enterprise Preferred Vendors for UC Apps Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently ANALYSIS OF SMB PLANS FOR MICROSOFT LYNC ENTERPRISE VOICE Demographics of SMB Survey Participants Distribution of Participating SMBs by Type of Decision-Maker Distribution of Participating SMBs by Industry SMB Position on Microsoft Software Products and Services SMB Status on Trialing Microsoft Lync Percent of SMB Microsoft Lync Trials that Include Enterprise Voice SMB Perception of Microsoft Capabilities for Enterprise Voice Performance of Enterprise Voice during SMB Trial of Microsoft Lync SMB Perspective on Startup Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice SMB Perspective on Ongoing Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice SMB Plans for Deploying Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials SMB Top Reasons for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Factors that Fell Short of SMBs Expectations in Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice SMB Problems in Scaling Lync with Enterprise Voice Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Small Business Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Busines Projected SMB Deployment of Licenses for Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Scope of Planned SMB Deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice SMB Organization Responsible for Decision to Deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice SMB Ratings of Microsoft Dealers in Terms of Voice Expertise Resources Used Extensively During Deployment of Lync with Enterprise Voice SMB Familiarity with Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Perception of Whether Enhancements Meet SMB Needs Likelihood of SMBs Implementing Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Effect of Skype Acquisition on SMB Decision to Implement Lync with Enterprise Voice Likelihood of SMBs Implementing Skype functions during Next Few Years SMB Plans for Replacing/Retaining Existing Telephony Systems During Lync Deployment Distribution of Endpoints on SMB Deployed Lync Systems with Enterprise Voice Primary Method for SMBs Connecting to the PSTN for Lync with Enterprise Voice SMB Agreement on Use of 3 rd Party Session Border Controllers/Enhanced Gateways SMB Plans for Voic on Lync with Enterprise Voice SMB Preferred Vendor for IP-PBXs Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently SMB Preferred Vendor for UC Apps Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 4 of 85

5 LIST of EXHIBITS Page Exhibit ES-1 Current Status of Microsoft Lync Trials vs. a Year Ago... 8 Exhibit ES-2 Microsoft Lync Trials that Include Enterprise Voice vs. a Year Ago... 9 Exhibit ES-3 Current Plans for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials vs. a Year Ago Exhibit ES-4 Top Reasons for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Exhibit ES-5 Perspective on the Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit ES-6 Scope of Planned Deployment of Lync Enterprise Voice vs. a Year Ago Exhibit ES-7 Penetration of Lync EV Licenses in the Enterprise Market vs. a Year Ago Exhibit ES-8 Penetration of Lync EV Licenses in the SMB Market vs. a Year Ago Exhibit ES-9 Projected Penetration of Lync EV Licenses Exhibit ES-10 Exhibit ES-11 Preferred Vendor for IP-PBXs Before Microsoft Entered the Market vs. Currently Preferred Vendor for UC Apps Before Microsoft Entered the Market vs. Currently Exhibit 1 Distribution of Participating Enterprises by Size Exhibit 2 Distribution of Participating Enterprises by Type of Decision-Maker Exhibit 3 Distribution of Participating Enterprises by Type of Industry Exhibit 4 Enterprise Position on Microsoft Software Products and Services Exhibit 5 Current Status of Enterprise Trials of Microsoft Lync Exhibit 6 Percent of Enterprise Microsoft Lync Trials that Include Enterprise Voice Exhibit 7 Enterprise Perception of Microsoft Capabilities for Enterprise Voice Exhibit 8 Performance of Enterprise Voice during Microsoft Lync Trials Exhibit 9 Enterprise Perspective on Startup Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 10 Enterprise Perspective on Ongoing Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 11 Enterprise Plans for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Exhibit 12 Enterprises Top Reasons for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Exhibit 13 Factors that Fell Short of Enterprises Expectations in Deploying Lync with EV Exhibit 14 Enterprise Problems in Scaling Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 15 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise Exhibit 16 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Large Enterprise Exhibit 17 Enterprise Projected Deployment of Licenses for Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 18 Enterprise Scope of Planned Deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 19 Enterprise Scope of Planned Deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 20 Enterprise Ratings of Microsoft Dealers in Terms of Voice Expertise Exhibit 21 Resources Used Extensively During Deployment of Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 22 Enterprise Familiarity with Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Exhibit 23 Perception of Whether Enhancements Meet Enterprise Needs Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 5 of 85

6 Exhibit 24 Likelihood of Enterprises Implementing Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Exhibit 25 Effect of Skype Acquisition on Decision to Implement Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 26 Likelihood of Implementing Skype functions during Next Few Years Exhibit 27 Enterprise Plans for Replacing/Retaining Existing Telephony Systems During Lync Deployment Exhibit 28 Enterprise Distribution of Endpoints on Deployed Lync Systems with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 29 Primary Method for Enterprises Connecting to the PSTN for Lync with Enterprise Voice.. 48 Exhibit 30 Agreement Regarding Use of 3 rd Party Session Border Controllers/Enhanced Gateways Exhibit 31 Enterprise Plans for Voic on Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 32 Exhibit 33 Enterprise Preferred Vendors for IP-PBXs Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Enterprise Preferred Vendors for UC Apps Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Exhibit 34 Distribution of Participating SMBs by Size Exhibit 35 Distribution of Participating SMBs by Type of Decision-Maker Exhibit 36 Distribution of Participating SMBs by Industry Exhibit 37 SMB Position on Microsoft Software Products and Services Exhibit 38 SMB Status on Trialing Microsoft Lync Exhibit 39 Percent of SMB Microsoft Lync Trials that Include Enterprise Voice Exhibit 40 SMB Perception of Microsoft Capabilities for Enterprise Voice Exhibit 41 Performance of Enterprise Voice during SMB Trial of Microsoft Lync Exhibit 42 SMB Perspective on Startup Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 43 SMB Perspective on Ongoing Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 44 SMB Plans for Deploying Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Exhibit 45 SMB Top Reasons for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Exhibit 46 Factors that Fell Short of SMBs Expectations in Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 47 SMB Problems in Scaling Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 48 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Small Business Exhibit 49 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Business Exhibit 50 Projected SMB Deployment of Licenses for Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 51 Scope of Planned SMB Deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 52 SMB Organization Responsible for Decision to Deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 53 SMB Ratings of Microsoft Dealers in Terms of Voice Expertise Exhibit 54 Resources Used Extensively During Deployment of Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 55 SMB Familiarity with Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Exhibit 56 Perception of Whether Enhancements Meet SMB Needs Exhibit 57 Likelihood of SMBs Implementing Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Exhibit 58 Effect of Skype Acquisition on SMB Decision to Implement Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 59 Likelihood of SMBs Implementing Skype functions during Next Few Years Exhibit 60 SMB Plans for Replacing/Retaining Existing Telephony Systems During Lync Deployment79 Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 6 of 85

7 Exhibit 61 Distribution of Endpoints on SMB Deployed Lync Systems with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 62 Primary Method for SMBs Connecting to the PSTN for Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 63 SMB Agreement on Use of 3 rd Party Session Border Controllers/Enhanced Gateways Exhibit 64 SMB Plans for Voic on Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 65 Exhibit 66 SMB Preferred Vendor for IP-PBXs Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently SMB Preferred Vendor for UC Apps Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 7 of 85

8 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY How Have Plans to Trial Microsoft Lync Changed Since A Year Ago? In February 2012, T3i Group published the first in-depth primary research and analysis of the potential impact of Microsoft Lync on the market for Enterprise Voice (EV) systems. That report framed the two opposing sides of the ongoing debate regarding Microsoft Lync: Microsoft has the opportunity to dominate the UC market and take a significant share of the voice IP-PBX market via Lync Many businesses may be trialing Lync EV, but actual implementation of Lync will be mainly IM and Presence That report analyzed the implementation plans of more than 300 Enterprises and SMBs and concluded that Microsoft Lync should be recognized as a significant risk to incumbent IP-PBX vendors. In June 2013, we published our second research study on Microsoft Lync, which clearly confirmed the findings in the first report. For this 2014 study, we again surveyed over 300 IT and business leaders who are involved in the decision process regarding the adoption and usage of Lync. In this Executive Summary, we compare the results of the current 2014 study with those of the second study from last year. Currently, 72% of the participating U.S. Enterprises, companies with 500+ employees, were either conducting or had completed trials of Microsoft Lync. That was a huge increase compared to 42% of U.S. Enterprises that were in that position a year ago. Only 5% of the Enterprises indicated they had no plans to trial Lync. Among U.S. SMBs (Small/Medium Businesses with 5 to 499 employees), there was just a modest increase, with 34% having completed those trials or currently conducting them, compared to 29% a year ago. However, we could see a significant increase next year, with almost half of the SMBs indicating that they were planning to conduct a trial of Microsoft Lync. Exhibit ES-1 Current Status of Microsoft Lync Trials vs. A Year Ago Enterprise SMB Have completed trial 14% 38% Have completed trial 8% 16% Currently conducting trial 34% Currently conducting trial 28% 18% 21% Planning to conduct trial 23% Planning to conduct trial 52% 46% 52% No plans to conduct trial 5% 6% No plans to conduct trial 20% 19% Current A year ago Current A year ago Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 8 of 85

9 Do the Trials of Microsoft Lync Include Enterprise Voice? The previous exhibit indicated significant increased interest in Microsoft Lync as a potential platform for UC applications, but what about Enterprise Voice? We asked the survey respondents that were trialing Lync whether Enterprise Voice was being included in their trials. With Enterprise Voice, Lync can provide the type of important telephony features that are generally available on current IP-PBXs. As shown in Exhibit ES-2, 89% of the U.S. Enterprises indicated that Enterprise Voice had been or will be included in their Lync trials. That represents a 13 point increase from 76% a year ago. Among U.S. SMBs, 63% said that their trials of Lync included Enterprise Voice, up from 54% last year. Microsoft and its partners make it relatively easy to trial Lync with Enterprise Voice. Firms are provided Lync-certified SIP phones or softphones on a temporary basis and do not have to install Lync servers for the trials. That is one of the reasons why such a high percentage of trials include Enterprise Voice. Exhibit ES-2 Microsoft Lync Trials that Include Enterprise Voice vs. a Year Ago Enterprise No, Trials Do Not Include Enterprise Voice Yes, Trials Include Enterprise Voice SMB No, Trials Do Not Include Enterprise Voice Yes, Trials Include Enterprise Voice 11% 24% 37% 46% 89% 76% 63% 54% Current A year ago Current A year ago Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 9 of 85

10 What Is the Anticipated Adoption Rate of Lync Enterprise Voice? The decision-makers in this research were also asked about their plans for actually deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice (EV). Exhibit ES-3 depicts their responses. Last year, 15% of U.S. Enterprises had begun to deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice beyond the trial stage, and another 44% were in the planning stages of deployment. It appears that more than half of those that were in the planning stages last year have actually begun their deployment, thus increasing the current total to 44%, tripling the 15% from a year ago. Only 21% of the Enterprises were either waiting for the results of their trials before deciding whether to deploy Lync EV or had no plans to deploy. That represents a 20 point reduction in the percent of Undecideds or No Plans from last year. Only 4% of the U.S. Enterprises we surveyed indicated that they had no plans to implement Microsoft Lync Enterprise Voice. The percent of SMBs that were actually deploying Lync EV beyond trials also increased in the past year, but only from 9% to 12%. 31% of SMBs were currently planning to deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice, up from 27% last year. 57% were either undecided awaiting trial results, or don t plan to deploy, compared to 64% a year ago. It is extremely significant that almost half of U.S. Enterprises have begun to deploy Lync EV. This is the market segment in which Microsoft has traditionally developed the strongest relationships with IT decision-makers. These results show that those relationships are paying off. Exhibit ES-3 Current Plans for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials vs. A Year Ago Enterprise SMB Currently deploying 15% 44% Currently deploying 9% 12% Planning to deploy 35% Planning to deploy 44% 27% 31% Undecided; depends on results of trial 17% Undecided; depends on results of trial 34% 43% 48% No plans to deploy Microsoft Lync for Enterprise Voice 4% 7% No plans to deploy Microsoft Lync for Enterprise Voice 14% 16% Current Current A year A year ago ago Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 10 of 85

11 Why are Businesses Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice? We asked the decision-makers who were currently deploying Lync EV or planning to deploy, to rank the top reasons for that decision. The results are shown in Exhibit ES-4. The number one reason among both Enterprises and SMBs was that Lync Enterprise Voice s total cost of ownership (TCO) is lower than PBX based solutions. This was also the top reason provided in last year s survey responses. Microsoft prices Lync very attractively for firms that use other Microsoft applications. Licenses for access to Lync are bundled in the Enterprise CAL Suite with licenses of other popular Microsoft applications including Exchange, SharePoint and Windows. Firms who want to add Enterprise Voice can upgrade for an additional incremental charge. Microsoft s Enterprise Agreement offers volume pricing discounts for licenses, as well. The effectiveness of Microsoft s bundling strategy is reflected in the second reason both Enterprises and SMBs gave for moving to Lync Enterprise Voice -- Facilitates voice feature integration with other Microsoft applications. The next three reasons demonstrate the effectiveness of Microsoft s incremental pricing strategy: We have already adopted Microsoft Lync for IM and Presence We have already adopted Microsoft Lync for Web Conferencing Lync EV is a natural extension of our commitment to Lync for UC The Microsoft IP-PBX competitors may argue that Enterprises are mainly implementing Microsoft Lync just as a platform for UC, simply because they were already using Microsoft for IM or web conferencing. But IP-PBX vendors face an even greater risk if Enterprises adopt Lync for UC, because Exhibit ES-4 shows that Enterprises will implement Microsoft Lync as a platform for Enterprise Voice, largely because they had already begun using Microsoft Lync for UC. Exhibit ES-4 Top Reasons for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Among Enterprises & SMBs Deploying/Planning to Deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice Top Reasons ENT SMB Total cost of ownership (hardware, software, service support) is lower than PBX based solutions Facilitates voice feature integration with other Microsoft applications, e.g., Sharepoint, Exchange, Office We have already adopted Microsoft Lync for IM and Presence 3 4 We have already adopted Microsoft Lync for Web Conferencing 4 3 Lync Enterprise Voice is a natural extension of our commitment to Microsoft Lync for UC 5 5 The Lync Client is superior to the user interface provided by other UC vendors 6 6 Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 11 of 85

12 How Did Actual Costs Compare with Expectations for Implementation of Lync EV? In the preceding Exhibit, Enterprises and SMBs both indicated that their number one reason for implementing Microsoft Lync for Enterprise Voice was because its Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) was lower than PBX based solutions. But were they really considering all of the costs or were they focused primarily on start-up costs? In the early stages, the costs may be lower because much of the initial cost of Lync EV was an incremental extension to the investment that they had already made in implementing a broader suite of Microsoft applications. In this year s survey we asked the respondents to distinguish between start-up costs and ongoing costs. Half of the Enterprises that were currently deploying Lync EV or preparing to deploy it indicated that the start-up costs were in line with what they had expected. Almost as many, 42%, said the same thing about ongoing costs. One-third of the Enterprises admitted that there were some additional ongoing costs that they had not anticipated. But that was only slightly more than the 28% who said the same thing about the start-up costs. 19% of Enterprises felt that the ongoing costs were actually lower than they had expected, versus 15% who felt that way about start-up costs. A significant percentage of Enterprises encountered some surprises with both the ongoing costs of deploying Lync EV and the start-up costs. Interestingly, the attitude of SMBs toward ongoing costs vs. start-up costs was almost identical to that of their Enterprise counterparts. However, despite these unanticipated additional costs, the scope of deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice is continuing to increase, as shown in the next exhibit. Exhibit ES-5 Perspective on the Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Enterprise SMB The costs are in line with what we had expected The costs are in line with 50% what we had 42% expected 58% 55% There were some additional costs that There were some additional 28% costs that we had not anticipated we had 32% not anticipated 26% 31% So far the costs are lower than we had expected So far the 15% costs are lower than 19% we had expected 12% 14% It is too early in the process to make It is too early 7% in the process to make a determination on costs 7% a determination on costs 0% 4% Startup Costs Ongoing costs Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 12 of 85

13 How Extensively Are Firms Planning to Deploy Lync Enterprise Voice? We asked the firms that were deploying or planned to deploy Lync Enterprise Voice to characterize the scope of their deployment from an array of five approaches that range from enabling selected individuals to full-scale global deployment. Among the current/future implementers in last year s study, 32% of those Enterprises were planning a company-wide deployment of Lync Enterprise Voice that would cover either their U.S. operations (15%) or their entire global Enterprise (17%). That represented 19% of all Enterprises that took part in last year s study. Certainly, that could have a substantial impact on the PBX market both within the U.S. and globally. Since then, Enterprises have begun to deploy Lync 2013 which offered significant improvements over Lync As a result, the percent of projected company-wide deployments among the current/future implementers has jumped to 40% (24% nationwide and 16% globally). Measured against a base of 79% of Enterprises which are currently deploying or planning to deploy, that represented 32% of all Enterprises that participated in this year s study. 33% of U.S. SMBs that are currently deploying or plan to deploy Lync Enterprise Voice expect nation-wide or global deployment. That is just one point higher than the 32% of the SMBs in last year s study. These SMBs planning company-wide deployment represent 14% of all SMBs that participated in this study, up slightly from 12% of SMBs last year. In the 2013 InfoTrack for Unified Communications (IUC) forecast report, we estimated that Microsoft had achieved a 14.9% market share of IP Telephony shipments to U.S. Enterprises in 2012 and 3.6% share for SMBs. Based on the results of this study, we can expect to see a significant increase in Microsoft s Enterprise market share for 2013, with perhaps a flat or declining share in the SMB market. Exhibit ES-6 Scope of Planned Deployment of Lync EV vs. A Year Ago Among Current/Future Implementers Enterprise SMB Selected individuals 7% 7% Selected individuals 14% 23% At selected locations as the need arisesat selected locations as 24% the need arises (e.g., replace outdated PBX) (e.g., replace 27% outdated PBX) 22% 17% 29% Throughout specific departments or business Throughout unitsspecific departments or business units 34% 31% 28% Throughout your home country 24% Throughout your home country 15% 25% 33% Globally 16% 17% Globally 0% 7% Current A year ago Current A year ago Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 13 of 85

14 What is the Actual Penetration of Lync EV Licenses Within All Employees of U.S. Enterprises? To measure the penetration of Lync Enterprise Voice licenses that are actually in use in the U.S. Enterprise segment of the market, we asked the decision-makers the following series of questions about the number and status of their Lync licenses in the U.S.: How many total Lync licenses does your company have? Of those, how many are Plus CAL for Enterprise Voice? What % of those are in actual use by employees? What is your company s total number of employees in the U.S.? As noted earlier, Enterprises may have a number of Lync licenses that were bundled as part of Microsoft s Enterprise CAL Suite of licenses. In this year s study, the total Lync licenses represented 15% of their employees in the U.S., up sharply from 11% a year ago. 45% of those licenses were Plus CAL for Enterprise Voice, somewhat more than last year. The percent of Plus CAL licenses that had been activated for actual use was also about the same as last year, 51% vs. 54%. These active Plus CAL licenses represent 3.4% of total U.S. Enterprise employees, a significant increase from 2.5% in last year s study. Exhibit ES-7 Penetration of Lync EV Licenses in the Enterprise Market vs. a Year Ago Lync licenses as % of total employees Plus CAL as % of Lync Licenses % Plus CAL licenses in actual use Lync Enterprise Voice licenses in use as % of total employees Current 45% 51% 15% 3.4% A year ago 42% 54% 11% 2.5% Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 14 of 85

15 What is the Actual Penetration of Lync EV Licenses Within Employees of U.S. SMBs? To measure the penetration of Lync Enterprise Voice licenses that are actually in use in the U.S. SMB market, we used the same methodology that was described on the preceding page and applied it to the responses of the SMB participants in this year s survey. The total Lync licenses among the SMBs this year represented 15% of their employees in the U.S., compared to 11% a year ago. 50% of those licenses were Plus CAL for Enterprise Voice, down somewhat from 53% last year. The percent of Plus CAL licenses that had been activated for actual use by SMB employees was 35%, about the same as the 37% a year ago. These active Plus CAL licenses represent 2.6% of total U.S. SMB employees, up from 2.2% in last year s study. Exhibit ES-8 Penetration of Lync EV Licenses in the SMB Market vs. A Year Ago Lync licenses as % of total employees Plus CAL as % of Lync Licenses % Plus CAL licenses in actual use Lync Enterprise Voice licenses in use as % of total employees Current 15% 50% 35% 2.6% A year ago 53% 37% 11% 2.2% Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 15 of 85

16 What is the Projected Penetration of Lync EV Licenses Over the Next Few Years? We asked the study participants a similar set of questions about their future deployment plans in order to calculate the projected penetration of Lync EV Licenses. Among U.S. Enterprises, the projected penetration of active plus CAL licenses was 5.7% by the end of That was up significantly from the 3.4% penetration at the end of 2013, as presented in Exhibit ES-7. By the end of 2017, the penetration of active Plus CAL licenses was projected to reach 8.3% of U.S. Enterprise employees. Penetration of Lync EV licenses in the U.S. SMB market was projected to lag that of the U.S. Enterprise market. By the end of 2015, the projected penetration of active plus CAL licenses was 3.6% of U.S. SMB employees. That was a significant increase from the 2.6% penetration computed for the end of The rate of SMB penetration was expected to accelerate over the following two years, reaching 4.6% of SMB employees by the end of Exhibit ES-9 Projected Penetration of Lync EV Licenses 8.3% 5.7% 3.4% 2.6% 3.6% 4.6% Enterprise SMB Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 16 of 85

17 Where Does Microsoft Rate Among Preferred Vendors for IP-PBXs? Participants in this study were asked to identify the one company that was currently their preferred vendor for IP-PBXs or the functionality of IP-PBXs. They were also asked to identify who that preferred vendor was before Microsoft entered the Enterprise Voice market. The responses to these questions have been summarized in Exhibit ES-10. About half of the U.S. Enterprises indicated that Cisco was their Preferred Vendor for IP-PBXs before Microsoft entered the Enterprise Voice market. This was followed by Avaya with 27%. 17% of the Enterprises preferred one of the other telephony systems vendors. In response to the question regarding their current Preferred Vendor for IP-PBXs, 38% of the Enterprises selected Microsoft. This was substantially higher than the 25% in last year s study. It was somewhat surprising that the percentage of Enterprises that picked Microsoft was higher than Cisco. On the other hand, we noted in Exhibit ES-3 that 44% of the Enterprises were currently deploying Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice. And in Exhibit ES-6, we saw that 40% of Enterprises expected company-wide deployment of Microsoft Lync EV. We should note that the format of this question in the survey limited Enterprises to one selection for Preferred Vendor currently. So of the Enterprises that had begun to deploy Microsoft Lync but still had mostly Cisco IP-PBXs, some could have decided to pick Microsoft as their one response to this question. As a result, Cisco dropped from 52% to 34%, while preferences for Avaya declined 12 points to 15%. Among SMBs, 15% selected Microsoft as their currently preferred IP- PBX vendor. SMBs that preferred Avaya declined from 30% to 26%, while preferences for other telephony systems vendors went from 44% to 37%. Cisco dropped from 20% to 16% among these SMB decisionmakers. Exhibit ES-10 Preferred Vendor for IP-PBXs Before Microsoft Entered the Market vs. Currently Enterprise SMB Vendors Avaya 15% 27% Vendors Avaya 30% 26% Cisco 34% 52% Cisco 20% 16% Microsoft 0% Microsoft 38% 0% 15% Cloud-based Hosted Service Provider 4% Cloud-based Hosted Service Provider 4% 6% 6% Other 9% 17% Other 37% 44% Before Currently Before Currently Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 17 of 85

18 Where Does Microsoft Rate Among Preferred Vendors for UC Apps? Participants in this study were also asked to identify the one company that is currently their preferred vendor for UC applications. In addition, they were asked to identify who that preferred vendor was before Microsoft entered the Enterprise Voice market. The responses to these questions have been summarized in Exhibit ES % of the U.S. Enterprises indicated that Cisco was their Preferred Vendor for UC Apps before Microsoft entered the Enterprise Voice market. At that point in time, Microsoft was already considered to be the Preferred Vendor for UC Apps by 27% of the Enterprises, followed by Avaya at 15%. In response to the question regarding their current Preferred Vendor for UC Apps, 40% of the Enterprises selected Microsoft. This was a gain of 13 points for Microsoft, while Cisco dropped 7 points to 36%, which put them in 2 nd place behind Microsoft. Avaya declined 6 points to 9%. Among SMBs, before Microsoft entered the Enterprise Voice market they were the 3 rd most popular vendor for UC apps. But currently, 29% of the SMBs chose Microsoft as their Preferred Vendor for UC Apps, a gain of 17 points. That put them ahead of Avaya which declined from 23% to 17%, and Cisco which dropped from 20% to 17% among these SMB decision-makers. The bottom line here is that Microsoft is now the highest rated vendor for both UC Apps (40%) and IP-PBXs (38%) among U.S. Enterprises that participated in this survey. They have also moved into the top spot as Preferred Vendor for UC Apps among SMBs (29%). Exhibit ES-11 Preferred Vendor for UC-Apps Before Microsoft Entered the Market vs. Currently Enterprise SMB Vendors Avaya 9% 15% Vendors Avaya 17% 23% Cisco 36% 43% Cisco 20% 17% Microsoft 27% Microsoft 40% 12% 29% Cloud-based Hosted Service Provider 2% Cloud-based Hosted Service Provider 3% 9% 11% Other 13% 12% Other 26% 36% Before Currently Before Currently Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 18 of 85

19 2. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY Scope of InfoTrack for Unified Communications (IUC) InfoTrack for Unified Communications is a research program that addresses demand for evolving communications technologies and the impact of significant market shifts. Our analysis focuses on understanding decision-makers perceptions of the solutions being marketed to them, and their resulting buyer behaviors. In the first half of 2014 we published reports on 1) New Trends and Changes in Customers UC Buying Behavior and 2) Transformative Technologies Enterprise and SMB Outlook on how UC can Transform how they do Business. This current report is the 3 rd annual report on the Market Impact of Microsoft Lync. In June 2014 we will publish our annual in-depth forecast of the IP Telephony and Unified Communications (UC) application markets. Program Leadership The program directors for IUC are Ken Dolsky ([email protected]) and Terry White ([email protected]). They are responsible for all primary research involving the market demand for unified communications among U.S. and international businesses and institutions. To support these primary research efforts, T3i Group has established two research panels, one consisting of more than 7,000 Enterprise decision-makers and a second panel with more than 6,000 SMB decision-makers. Primary Research Methodology Analyses presented in this study were driven by comprehensive primary research, which was conducted specifically for this report. This primary research included a mix of web-based surveys and telephone interviews, with key industry players, including: Decision-makers for both IP Telephony and UC applications Leading suppliers of IP Telephony systems and UC apps. The research covered both Enterprises (entities with 500 or more employees) and SMBs (entities with 5 to 499 employees). Results for each group are provided in separate sections. Copyright 2014 T3i Group. All rights reserved June 2014 Page 19 of 85

20 3. ANALYSIS OF ENTERPRISE PLANS FOR MICROSOFT LYNC ENTERPRISE VOICE Demographics of Enterprise Survey Participants The exhibits in this section of the report are based on responses from U.S. business and institutional entities with 500 or more employees. IUC refers to these entities as Enterprises. During April 2014, surveys were completed with over 150 qualified Enterprise managers who are key decision-makers or key influencers regarding adoption and usage of Microsoft Lync. The same survey also received responses from 150 managers at SMB sized companies (499 employees or less) with the same responsibilities. The results from the SMB managers are described later in Section 4. Exhibit 1 below shows the distribution of the participating U.S. Enterprises based upon their size. 23% of the respondents represented Enterprises with 500 to 999 employees, and 27% were Enterprises with 1,000 to 2,499 employees. Throughout the analysis, these two size categories, comprising 50% of the respondents, are referred to as Medium Enterprises (ME). 36% of the respondents were from Enterprises with between 2,500 and 9,999 employees. Enterprises with 10,000 or more employees accounted for 14% of the Enterprise participants. These two size segments comprise the Large Enterprise (LE) segment, representing 50% of the respondents. Exhibit 1 by Size Distribution of Participating Enterprises U.S. Enterprises % 1,000 2,499 27% 2,500 9,999 36% 10, % Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 20 of 85

21 Distribution of Participating Enterprises by Type of Decision Maker Exhibit 2 contains two graphs that show the distribution of titles and decision-making responsibilities among the Enterprise decisionmakers who participated in this study. 44% were Executives who are responsible for business decisions, including CEOs, CFOs, COOs and Line of Business Managers. These executives are becoming more involved in the UC decision process, which justified their significantly higher representation in this year s survey. CIOs, Information Systems Managers and Applications Managers, who are responsible for IT (information technology) decision-making, accounted for 49% of the participants in this study. The remaining 7% were Telecom Managers and Data Network Managers whose primary decision-making responsibilities involve communications systems and networks. Exhibit 2 Distribution of Participating Enterprises by Type of Decision Maker CEO 19% CFO or COO 13% 7% LoB Manager 12% 44% CIO Info Systems Manager 15% 33% 49% Applications Manager 1% Data Network Manager Telecom Manager 1% 6% Business Information Communications Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 21 of 85

22 Distribution of Participating Enterprises by Type of Industry Exhibit 3 shows the industry segment distribution of the Enterprise decision-makers who participated in this study. The participants represented 10 different industries. The top three industries accounted for almost half of the Enterprise respondents, led by Manufacturing with 20%, Retail/Wholesale at 15% and Professional Services at 10%. The next five industries represented roughly 40%of the total, including Healthcare, Telecommunications, Business Services, Financial Services/Insurance and Education. Exhibit 3 by Type of Industry Distribution of Participating Enterprises Manufacturing 20% Retail/Wholesale 15% Professional Services Healthcare Telecommunications Business Services Financial Services/Insurance Education Government 10% 9% 9% 8% 7% 6% 5% Utilities 2% Other 9% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 22 of 85

23 Enterprise Position on Microsoft Software Products and Services Exhibit 4 shows the position taken by Enterprises toward Microsoft as a provider of products and services. Enterprises surveyed were strongly inclined toward reliance on the company, with 96% of Large Enterprises and 94% of Medium Enterprises describing themselves as Microsoft shops for at least some software. Of those, MEs were more likely to depend primarily on Microsoft for key products and services (72% of MEs versus 63% of LEs), while LEs were more likely to buy only selected products and services from Microsoft (33% of LEs versus 22% of MEs). Among those few that characterized themselves as not a Microsoft shop were 4% of LEs and 6% of MEs. Exhibit 4 Enterprise Position on Microsoft Software Products and Services 72% 63% 22% 33% 6% 4% Our company is primarily a Microsoft shop for key software products and services Our company is a Microsoft shop for selected software products and services Our company is NOT a Microsoft shop for key software products and services Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 23 of 85

24 Enterprise Status on Trialing Microsoft Lync As in last year s report, Enterprise decision-makers were then asked about their plans to trial Microsoft Lync without reference to any specific functionality. Exhibit 5 shows the results. 72% of the Medium Enterprises have trialed or are currently trialing Microsoft Lync. This figure is up from 40% last year. As a result, the percent of MEs who said they were Planning to conduct a trial decreased from 52% last year to 22% this year. The category with the largest increase was Have completed trial which is now 33%, up from 10% last year. Similarly, 72% of the Large Enterprises indicated they have trialed or are trialing Microsoft Lync. Last year the figure was 43%. Consequently, the percent of LEs who said they were Planning to conduct a trial decreased from 52% last year to 24% this year. Once again, the largest increase was in the Have completed trial category which increased from 17% last year to 43% this year. Microsoft trials are very accessible, which may be the reason for the high interest. Microsoft channel partners can use Microsoft s Proof of Concept and secure Web access to enable trials of Lync Enterprise Voice. Firms are offered softphones or Lync-certified SIP phones on a temporary basis and do not have to install Lync servers for the trials. Exhibit 5 Microsoft Lync Current Status of Enterprise Trials of Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Have completed trial 10% 33% Have completed trial 17% 43% Currently conducting trial 39% Currently conducting trial 30% 29% 26% Planning to conduct trial 22% Planning to conduct trial 52% 24% 52% No plans to conduct trial 6% 8% No plans to conduct trial 4% 5% Currently A year ago Currently A year a Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 24 of 85

25 Percent of Enterprise Microsoft Lync Trials that Include Enterprise Voice Exhibit 6 shows the percentages of completed, current and planned Enterprise Microsoft Lync trials that included Enterprise Voice. As shown previously in Exhibit ES-2, 89% of the U.S. Enterprises who have trialed or are currently conducting trials or plan to trial indicated that Enterprise Voice had been, is or will be included in their Lync trials. That represents a 13 point increase from 76% a year ago. 88% of MEs said their trials include or will include Enterprise Voice. This compares with 68% who said this in last year s report. Similarly, 90% of LEs said they have trialed or will trial Enterprise Voice. This compares with 84% who said this in last year s report. Both segments of Enterprises have shown a significant increase in their interest in trialing Lync Enterprise Voice, especially among MEs. Microsoft and its partners make it relatively easy to trial Lync with Enterprise Voice. Firms are provided Lync-certified SIP phones or softphones on a temporary basis and do not have to install Lync servers for the trials. Exhibit 6 Percent of Enterprise Microsoft Lync Trials that Include Enterprise Voice Among those who have completed, are currently trialing or plan to trial Medium Enterprise No, Trials Do Not Include Enterprise Voice Yes, Trials Include Enterprise Voice Large Enterprise No, Trials Do Not Include Enterprise Voice Yes, Trials Include Enterprise Voice 12% 32% 10% 16% 88% 68% 90% 84% Current A year ago Current A year ago Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 25 of 85

26 Enterprise Perception of Microsoft Capabilities for Enterprise Voice Exhibit 7 shows how trials affected Enterprises perception of the capabilities of Lync Enterprise Voice. For Large Enterprises, trialing led to an improvement in the perception of the capabilities of Lync Enterprise Voice. Those believing that Microsoft is better than most traditional voice system manufacturers increased from 43% before trials to 57% after. The 14% that changed their views were accounted for by 7% of those that had previously believed Microsoft was as good as the competition and 7% who no longer believed it was worse. Trialing had a very positive effect on the perceptions of LEs. The perceptions of Microsoft s Enterprise Voice capabilities were equally as positive among Medium Enterprises, with 57% believing that Microsoft is better than most traditional voice system manufacturers after the trials, up from 50% before trials. This was a significant turnaround for the ME segment. A year ago we reported that 15% of the ME respondents had revised their perception downward, from better than most to as good as any, post-trial. This year 7% of the MEs revised their perception upward after the trial from as good as to better than. This indicates that Microsoft had significantly improved their Enterprise voice capabilities in their new release of Lync 2013, compared to the previous Lync 2010 (or at least managed to change customers perceptions). Exhibit 7 Enterprise Perception of Microsoft Capabilities for Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Microsoft is better than most traditional voice system manufacturers Microsoft is better than most traditional 50% voice system manufacturers 57% 43% 57% Microsoft is as good as any of the traditional voice system manufacturers Microsoft is as good as any 48% of the traditional voice system manufacturers 43% 39% 46% Microsoft is not up to par with traditional voice system manufacturers 2% Microsoft is not up to par with 0% traditional voice system manufacturers 4% 11% Pre-Trial Post-Trial Pre-Trial Post-Trial Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 26 of 85

27 Performance of Enterprise Voice during Microsoft Lync Trials This increased satisfaction with the Enterprise Voice capabilities of Microsoft Lync was further confirmed in Exhibit 8. We asked the Enterprise decision-makers about the performance of Enterprise Voice during Microsoft Lync trials. 100% of the Medium Enterprises (ME) and 98% of the Large Enterprises (LE) said it had met or exceeded their expectations. 59% of the Large Enterprises (LE) indicated that the performance of Enterprise voice had exceeded their expectations, as did 43% of Medium Enterprises (ME). Only LEs expressed any degree of dissatisfaction, with 2% noting that it did not meet their expectations during the trials. Exhibit 8 Lync Trials Performance of Enterprise Voice during Microsoft 0% 2% 57% 39% 43% 59% Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Exceeded expectations Met expectations Did not meet expectations Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 27 of 85

28 Enterprise Perspective on Startup Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 9 shows enterprises views on the relationship between the startup costs of implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice and their expectations about those costs. Roughly half of the Enterprises indicated that the startup costs were in line with what they had expected. 14% of Medium Enterprises and 16% of Large Enterprises actually felt that the startup costs were lower than they had expected. However, approximately twice that many -- 29% (ME) and 27% (LE) -- admitted there were some additional costs that they had not anticipated. The next Exhibit examines the ongoing costs of implementing Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice. Exhibit 9 Enterprise Perspective on Startup Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise The startup costs are in line with what we had expected The startup costs are in line with 52% what we had expected 48% There were some additional costs that we had not anticipated There were some additional costs 29% that we had not anticipated 27% So far the startup costs are lower than we had expected So far the startup costs are lower 14% than we had expected 16% It is too early in the process to makeit is too early in the process to make 5% a determination on startup costs a determination on startup costs 9% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 28 of 85

29 Enterprise Perspective on Ongoing Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice We also asked the Enterprise decision-makers about the ongoing costs of operating and managing Lync with Enterprise Voice. Exhibit 10 provides a view of their responses. A little over 40% of the Enterprises indicated that the ongoing costs were in line with what they had expected. But almost as many Large Enterprises (38%) revealed there were some additional costs that they had not anticipated. 26% of Medium Enterprises agreed that there were additional ongoing costs, but that was only slightly more than the 23% of MEs that actually felt the ongoing costs were lower than they had expected. 14% of LEs also said they had encountered lower ongoing costs than they had expected. The results in Exhibits 9 and 10 indicate some improvements regarding the Enterprise perspective on costs compared to the results of the study we conducted a year ago. In that study, only 10% of MEs and none of the LEs experienced lower total costs than expected. While 42% of LEs and 25% of MEs expressed concerns that there were additional costs that they had not anticipated. In that study, the vast majority of MEs (65%) and LEs (58%) felt that the total costs were in line with what they had expected. Exhibit 10 Enterprise Perspective on Ongoing Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise The ongoing costs are in line withthe ongoing costs are in line with 41% what we had expected what we had expected There were some additional coststhere were some additional costs 26% that we had not anticipated that we had not anticipated 38% 43% So far the ongoing costs are lowerso far the ongoing costs are lower 23% than we had expected than we had expected 14% It is too early in the process to make It is too early in the process to make 10% a determination on ongoing costsa determination on ongoing costs 5% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 29 of 85

30 Enterprise Plans for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Exhibit 11 shows the plans of all Enterprises surveyed regarding the deployment of Lync with Enterprise Voice currently compared to a year ago. In last year s study, almost equal percentages of LEs (43%) and MEs (44%) were planning to deploy Lync EV. But this year, those are the type of percentage of LEs (49%) and MEs (39%) who are actually deploying Lync EV. Last year, only 18% of LEs and 11% of MEs had started deploying Microsoft Lync with Enterprise voice. Thus, there has been a huge increase in the percent of U.S. Enterprises that are now deploying Lync EV. In addition, 37% of MEs and 33% of LEs indicated that they were currently in the planning stages of deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice and had proceeded beyond the trial stage. 24% of the Enterprises and 18% of the Large Enterprises were either waiting for the results of their trials before deciding whether to deploy Lync EV or had no plans to deploy. This represents a 21 point reduction in the percent of Undecideds or No Plans from last year. It appears that the positive results that Enterprises are experiencing during their trials of Lync EV have had a significant impact on their plans to move forward with deployment. Exhibit 11 Enterprise Plans for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials (Among all Enterprises) Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Currently deploying 11% 39% Currently deploying 18% 49% Planning to deploy 37% Planning to deploy 44% 33% 43% 20% Undecided; depends on results of trial Undecided; depends on results of trial 38% 14% 31% No plans to deploy Microsoft Lync for No plans 4% to deploy Microsoft Lync for Enterprise Voice 7% Enterprise Voice 4% 8% Current A year ago Current A year ago Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 30 of 85

31 Enterprises Top Reasons for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials The Enterprises implementing Microsoft Lync for Enterprise Voice were asked why they decided to implement Lync. Exhibit 12 ranks their responses. Both Medium and Large Enterprises most frequently cited lower total cost of ownership with Microsoft Lync Enterprise Voice than with PBX-based solutions. Microsoft s pricing structure bundles access to Lync in the Enterprise CAL Suite with access to popular applications, including Windows, Exchange and Sharepoint, so the incremental cost to add Lync functionality from a license standpoint is attractive. This is a key point because the second most important reason for both MEs and LEs was Facilitates voice feature integration with other Microsoft applications. We have already adopted Microsoft Lync for IM and Presence was third most important for both Enterprise segments, followed by we have already adopted Microsoft Lync for web conferencing. Lync Enterprise Voice is a natural extension of our commitment to Microsoft Lync for UC was cited as the fifth most important reasons for MEs, and the 6 th most important for LEs. The majority of the top-rated reasons indicate that once MEs and LEs adopt Microsoft Lync as their preferred platform for UC Apps, such as IM & presence and web conferencing, they are very likely to take the next step and implement Lync Enterprise Voice. Exhibit 12 Enterprises Top Reasons for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Among Enterprises Deploying or Planning to Deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice Total cost of ownership (hardware, software, service support) is lower than PBX based solutions Facilitates voice feature integration with other Microsoft applications, e.g., Sharepoint, Exchange, Office We have already adopted Microsoft Lync for IM and Presence Weighted Average ME LE Ranking ME LE We have already adopted Microsoft Lync for Web Conferencing The Lync Client is superior to the user interface provided by other UC vendors Lync Enterprise Voice is a natural extension of our commitment to Microsoft Lync for UC We have already invested in the Enterprise CAL Suite Lync is available as both a premises system and a hosted service Lync Enterprise Voice has all the voice functionality we need Connectivity with Skype Ease of implementation and telephony system management Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 31 of 85

32 Factors that Fell Short of Enterprises Expectations in Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice In our survey, we gave the Enterprises that were deploying Lync EV another opportunity to identify any factors that fell short of their expectations. However, the top-rated answer was None of these; Lync with Enterprise Voice has MET or EXCEEDED all of our expectations. There was still a group of Enterprises, particularly in the LE segment, that believe that Microsoft Lync s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) was NOT lower than PBX based solutions. These Enterprises were among those that earlier noted that there were some additional costs in implementing Lync EV that they had not anticipated. Another factor that fell short of the expectations of the LE decisionmakers was Lync Enterprise Voice is NOT supported by Lync Online, which is Microsoft s hosted version of Lync. This did not rate as a major determent among MEs, perhaps because there are several Microsoft partners that offer a hosted Lync service that does include the full Enterprise Voice capability. Some ME decision-makers expressed concern that Lync does NOT integrate easily with our existing voice system. Others had some concerns about the Lync support for Mobility. But overall, it appears that as Microsoft continues to enhance the features of Microsoft Lync EV, Enterprises are finding fewer concerns. Exhibit 13 Factors that Fell Short of Enterprises Expectations in Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Among Enterprises Currently Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice None of these; Lync with Enterprise Voice has MET or EXCEEDED all of our expectations Total cost of ownership (hardware, software, service support) is NOT lower than PBX based solutions Lync Enterprise Voice is NOT supported by Lync Online Lync does NOT facilitate telephony feature integration with other Microsoft applications, e.g., Sharepoint, Exchange, Office Weighted Average ME LE Ranking ME LE Lync support for Mobility does NOT meet our needs Lync does NOT integrate easily with our existing voice system Lync Enterprise Voice does NOT have all the voice functionality we need Lync does NOT provide ease of implementation and telephony system management The Lync Client is NOT superior to the user interface provided by other UC vendors Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 32 of 85

33 Enterprise Problems in Scaling Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 14 shows the degree to which enterprises saw or anticipated problems in scaling Lync with Enterprise Voice. The population answering this question included those who had deployed, are currently deploying and those that plan to deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice. About half (51% of MEs and 52% of LEs) found some problems but nothing major, while a somewhat smaller group (38% for MEs and 40% for LEs) found no problems scaling. More serious concerns expressing considerable problems were more prevalent among MEs than LEs (8% versus 5%), while only 3% of MEs and LEs were not able to scale as necessary. Overall, more than half of the enterprises had some degree of scaling difficulty while deploying or their planning efforts indicated they were likely to have some problem with scaling. However, the percentage that indicated that scaling was a significant problem was about a third less than in last year s study Exhibit 14 Enterprise Problems in Scaling Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise None 38% None 40% Some but nothing major Some but nothing major 51% 52% Considerable problems 8% Considerable problems 5% Have not been able to scale as necessary Have not 3% been able to scale as necessary 3% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 33 of 85

34 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise The IUC research asked several questions about the number of Lync licenses that have been purchased, grandfathered and activated. In addition to understanding the potential impact of Microsoft on voice system demand, InfoTrack also publishes shipment and installed base market share information, and began tracking Microsoft deployments of Lync with Enterprise Voice in This research, therefore, enables corroboration of InfoTrack for Enterprise Communication s installed base estimates. Exhibit 13 reflects the Medium Enterprises current implementation status of Microsoft Lync and Enterprise Voice licenses. 17% of the Medium Enterprises employees have Lync licenses, up from 13% last year. 49% of the Lync licenses are Plus CALs (Plus CAL licenses are required for Enterprise Voice) versus 50% last year, and 49% of the Medium Enterprises Plus CAL licenses are activated, compared with 51% last year. (These numbers represent the current view of installed base, not annual shipments/implementations). Overall, 4.1% of the Medium Enterprise segment employees have activated Lync Plus CAL licenses, up substantially from 3.3% last year. Note that the demographics stated above and elsewhere in this report are based on the survey respondent populations and have a confidence interval of at least ±10%. Exhibit 15 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise Lync licenses as % of total employees Plus CAL as % of Lync Licenses % Plus CAL licenses in actual use Lync Enterprise Voice licenses in use as % of total employees Current 49% 49% 17% 4.1% A year ago 50% 51% 13% 3.3% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 34 of 85

35 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Large Enterprise Exhibit 16 depicts Large Enterprises current implementation status of Microsoft Lync and Enterprise Voice licenses. 14% of employees in Large Enterprises have Lync licenses, up from 11% last year. 44% of those Lync licenses are Plus CALs (required for Enterprise Voice), compared with 40% last year. 52% of employees Plus CAL licenses are in use for Enterprise Voice, compared to 55% last year. Overall, 3.2% of Large Enterprise employees have activated Lync Plus CAL licenses. This is significant considering the short time that Lync Enterprise Voice has been available, and it represents an increase from last year, when the figure was 2.4%. (These numbers represent the current view of installed base, not annual shipments/ implementations). Exhibit 16 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Large Enterprise Lync licenses as % of total employees Plus CAL as % of Lync Licenses % Plus CAL licenses in actual use Lync Enterprise Voice licenses in use as % of total employees Current 44% 52% 14% 3.2% A year ago 40% 55% 11% 2.4% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 35 of 85

36 Enterprise Projected Deployment of Licenses for Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 17 shows Enterprises projections of Enterprise Voice licenses as a percentage of the total number of employees, for the years 2015 and Substantial growth is projected in each of those years, with percentages increasing from 4.1% to 6.5% and 9.0% among Medium Enterprises and from 3.2% to 5.4% and then 8.1% among Large Enterprises. As in 2013 (figures also shown in Exhibits 15 and 16, above), Medium Enterprises plan to deploy proportionally more licenses than Large Enterprises by a factor of 20% in 2015 and 11% in Exhibit 17 Enterprise Projected Deployment of Licenses for Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice 9.0% 8.1% 4.1% 3.2% 6.5% 5.4% Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 36 of 85

37 Enterprise Scope of Planned Deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 18 shows how extensively Enterprises plan to deploy Lync with EV (among those who stated they plan to implement or are currently implementing). 44% of MEs indicated their most likely method of deployment was throughout specific departments or business units, which was the same percentage as last year. However, 38% now intend to deploy Lync EV company-wide (20% throughout home country and 18% Globally), which was a significant increase compared to 27% company-wide one year ago. Among the LEs, one-third planned deployments at selected locations as the need arises, which was about the same as last year. However, the company-wide deployments have increased from 38% last year to 40% currently (26% throughout home country and 14% Globally). Selected individuals was the least popular deployment option for both MEs and LEs. The projected increase in company-wide deployments of Lync with Enterprise Voice is a key predictor of future increases in market share. Exhibit 18 Enterprise Scope of Planned Deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Among Current/future Implementers Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Selected individuals 5% 9% Selected individuals 5% 10% At selected locations as the need At arises selected locations 13% as the need arises (e.g., replace outdated PBX) (e.g., replace 20% outdated PBX) 33% 32% Throughout specific departmentsthroughout specific departments 44% or business units or business 44% units 17% 25% Throughout your home country 20% Throughout your home country 12% 18% 26% Globally 18% 15% Globally 14% 20% Current A year ago Current A Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 37 of 85

38 Enterprise Organization Responsible for Decision to Deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 19 shows which organizations within enterprises were responsible for the decision to deploy Lync EV. Two-thirds of the Large Enterprises identified their IT organization as the primary decision-maker, led by the IT organization responsible for Unified Communications at 39%, followed by the IT organization responsible for Telephony at 20%. Multi-department committees accounted for 18% of the LE decisions, ahead of C-level Executives at 16%. It was a similar picture of decision-making responsibility among the Medium Enterprises, 54% of whom identified their IT organization as the primary decision-maker, led by the IT organization responsible for Unified Communications at 28%, followed by the IT organization responsible for Telephony at 14%. Multi-department committees were next, accounting for 36% of the ME decisions, with the C-level Executives lagging at 10%. This implies that at this stage in the Lync life cycle, adoption among Enterprises is not being driven by either line of business managers or C level executives but rather by the technical organizations responsible for finding and implementing UC solutions. These groups are generally part of the CIO organization, but since C-level executives were not identified as major players in these decisions it is assumed that it is more the mid-level technical managers that are responsible. Exhibit 19 Enterprise Organization Responsible for Decision to Deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise IT organization responsible for Telephony IT organization responsible 14% for Telephony IT organization responsible for Unified IT organization responsible for Unified 28% Communications Communications IT organization responsible for Desktop IT organization responsible for Desktop 12% Applications Applications Multi-department committee responsible Multi-department committee responsible 18% for Telephony for Telephony Multi-department committee responsible Multi-department committee responsible 8% for Unified Communications for Unified Communications Multi-department committee responsible Multi-department committee responsible 10% for Desktop Applications for Desktop Applications 20% 8% 12% 2% 4% 39% C-Level Executive 10% C-Level Executive 16% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 38 of 85

39 Enterprise Ratings of Microsoft Dealers in Terms of Voice Expertise Exhibit 20 shows how Enterprise decision-makers rated Microsoft dealers in terms of voice expertise. More than 90% of the Enterprises rated their Microsoft dealers as either Good or Excellent in terms of voice expertise, led by Large Enterprises at 96% and Medium Enterprises at 92%. It should be noted that the ratings for Excellent exceeded those of Good in the ME segment, 47% vs. 45%. Those top two scores each accounted for 48% of the ratings in the LE segment. This is a significant improvement over the ratings of Microsoft dealers a year ago. In our report last year, 78% of the LEs rated their Microsoft dealers as either Good or Excellent in terms of voice expertise, but only 16% received Excellent ratings, with 62% judged to be Good. In this case, the Excellent ratings tripled in just one year. There was similar improvement in the ME segment with Excellent ratings jumping from 26% a year ago to 47% currently. Overall, these ratings dispel one of the industry s challenges to the success of MS Lync with EV which was that dealers would not be able to satisfy customers expectations for management and support of voice systems. Exhibit 20 Enterprise Ratings of Microsoft Dealers in Terms of Voice Expertise 8% 4% 45% 48% 47% 48% Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Excellent Good Fair Poor Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 39 of 85

40 Resources Used Extensively During Deployment of Lync with Enterprise Voice In our survey, we asked the Enterprise decision-makers about the extent to which they had used support resources during their deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice. Exhibit 21 shows the percentage of Enterprises that indicated Extensive Use. Local or Regional Partners had the highest score for Extensive Use from 59% of the LEs and 42% of the MEs. Internal Resources received the second highest score with 49% of the LEs and 42% of the MEs indicating that they had made Extensive Use of their internal IT resources in deploying Lync EV. The next group of three support resources National or Global Partner/Systems Integrator; Local or Regional Service Provider and National or Global Service Provider all received similar scores. Between 37% and 39% of MEs replied that they had made Extensive Use of these three resources during the deployment of Lync EV. To a lesser extent, 22% to 24% of LEs utilized these three resources Extensively. It is interesting that a significant percentage of Enterprises made Extensive Use of more than one of these types of support resources, in addition to their own internal resources. Apparently, some Enterprises were using Service Providers to support the implementation of a Hosted version of Lync EV for some of their locations and other dealers or systems integrators for Lync EV deployment at other locations. Exhibit 21 Resources Used Extensively During Deployment of Lync with Enterprise Voice Among Current/future Implementers Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Local or Regional Partner 42% Local or Regional Partner 59% National or Global Partner/Systems Integrator 39% National or Global Partner/Systems Integrator 24% Local or Regional Service Provider National or Global Service Provider Local or Regional Service 37% Provider National or Global Service 39% Provider 22% 22% Internal Resources Internal 42% Resources 49% Other 8% Other 14% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 40 of 85

41 Enterprise Familiarity with Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Exhibit 22 shows the degree of familiarity among Medium and Large Enterprises with the enhancements to Lync which Microsoft has introduced in the past 12 months. At least 90% of Large Enterprises were Extremely Familiar or Very Familiar with recent enhancements to Lync in five categories. The two categories whose enhancements had the highest percentage of Extremely Familiar ratings were Videoconferencing (55%) and Lync Online (49%). Enhancements to Lync Client apps and Connectivity with Skype were next, each with an Extremely Familiar rating of 47%. LEs were least familiar (30%) with enhancements to Mobile Endpoints. In the ME segment, at least 80% were Extremely Familiar or Very Familiar with recent enhancements to Lync in the five categories. The category whose enhancements had the highest percentage of Extremely Familiar ratings was again Videoconferencing (65%), but Skype Connectivity was a strong second at 55%. Then there was a significant drop off in ME familiarity with enhancements in the other three categories, each of which received an Extremely Familiar rating of 31% to 33%. The next two exhibits will examine whether Enterprises believe these enhancements meet their needs and the likelihood that they will implement these enhancements. Exhibit 22 Enterprise Familiarity with Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Videoconferencing Lync Client (Interface App on Desktop and Mobile devices) Mobile Endpoints (Lync support for a variety of Mobile devices) Skype Connectivity (Supports calls between Lync and any Skype user) Lync Online (Microsoft s version of Hosted IP Telephony) Medium Enterprise 65% Videoconferencing 20% Lync Client 33% (Interface App on Desktop and Mobile 49% devices) Mobile Endpoints 33% (Lync support for a variety 37% of Mobile devices) Skype Connectivity (Supports 55% calls between Lync 29% and any Skype user) Lync Online 31% (Microsoft s version of Hosted IP Telephony) 53% Large Enterprise 55% 40% 47% 47% 30% 60% 47% 45% 49% 49% % Extremely Familiar % Very Familiar % Extremely Familiar % Very Famili Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 41 of 85

42 Perception of Whether Enhancements Meet Enterprise Needs Exhibit 23 shows the extent to which Medium and Large Enterprises believe that the enhancements to Lync which Microsoft has introduced in the past 12 months will meet their needs. At least 85% of Large Enterprises believed that the recent enhancements to Lync would Fully Meet or Mostly Meet their needs in those five categories. The two categories whose enhancements had the highest percentage of Fully Meets Needs ratings were Videoconferencing (60%) and Skype Connectivity (60%). Enhancements to Lync Online were next, with a Fully Meets Needs rating of 49%. Enhancements to the Lync Client App and Mobile Endpoints had the lowest LE rating for Fully Meets Needs at 34%. In the ME segment, at least 70% felt that the recent enhancements to Lync would Fully Meet or Mostly Meet their needs in those five categories. The category whose enhancements had the highest percentage of Fully Meets Needs ratings among MEs was again Videoconferencing (57%), with Skype Connectivity in second at 41%. Enhancements in the other three categories, received Fully Meets Needs ratings ranging from 33% to 39%. Although Lync Online still does not support Enterprise Voice even with these enhancements, that does not appear to be a significant issue among Enterprise decision-makers, as they are most likely using it for its non-voice applications. Exhibit 23 Perception of Whether Enhancements Meet Enterprise Needs Medium EnterpriseMedium Enterprise Large Enterprise Videoconferencing 57% Videoconferencing Videoconferencing 29% 29% 57% 36% 60% Lync Client (Interface App Lync on Client (Interface Lync App Client on 35% (Interface App on Desktop and Mobile devices) Desktop and Mobile Desktop devices) and Mobile 49% devices) 35% 49% 34% 60% Mobile Endpoints (Lync support Mobile Endpoints for (Lync Mobile support Endpoints for33% (Lync support for a variety of Mobile devices) a variety of Mobile devices) a variety of 37% Mobile devices) 33% 37% 34% 55% Skype Connectivity (Supports Skype calls Connectivity (Supports Skype Connectivity calls 41% (Supports calls between Lync and any Skype between user) Lync and any between Skype Lync user) and 37% any Skype user) 41% 37% 26% 60% Lync Online (Microsoft s Lync version Online (Microsoft s Lync Online version (Microsoft s 39% version of Hosted IP Telephony) of Hosted IP Telephony) of Hosted 41% IP Telephony) 39% 41% 49% 45% % Whose Needs Are Fully Met % Whose % Needs Whose Are Needs Fully % Whose Are Met Mostly Needs % Met Whose Are Fully Needs Met Are Mostly % Whose Met Needs Are Mostly Met Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 42 of 85

43 Likelihood of Enterprises Implementing Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Exhibit 24 displays the likelihood that Medium and Large Enterprises will implement the enhancements to Lync which Microsoft has introduced in the past 12 months. At least 90% of Large Enterprises were Extremely Likely or Very Likely to implement the recent enhancements to Lync in five categories. The two categories which had the highest percentage of Extremely Likely ratings were Videoconferencing (45%) and Lync Online (34%). Enhancements to Lync Client apps were next with an Extremely Likely rating of 32%. LEs were least likely to implement the enhancements to Mobile Endpoints and Skype Connectivity, each of which received an Extremely Likely rating of 30%. In the ME segment, at least 80% were Extremely Likely or Very Likely to implement the recent enhancements to Lync in the five categories. Once again, the category whose enhancements received the highest percentage of Extremely Likely ratings was Videoconferencing (57%), and Skype Connectivity was second at 41%. Then there was a significant drop off in ME Likelihood with the enhancements in the other three categories. In these three cases, the Extremely Likely rating ranged from 22% for Mobile Endpoints to 29% for Lync Online and the Lync Client app. Overall, the category whose enhancements received the highest ratings from Enterprise decision-makers was Videoconferencing. At the other end of the spectrum, the enhancements in the Mobile Endpoints category received the lowest overall Enterprise ratings. Exhibit 24 Likelihood of Enterprises Implementing Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Videoconferencing 57% Videoconferencing 35% 45% 55% Lync Client (Interface App on Desktop and Mobile devices) Lync Client 29% (Interface App on Desktop and Mobile devices) 59% 32% 66% Mobile Endpoints (Lync support for a variety of Mobile devices) Mobile Endpoints 22% (Lync support for a variety of Mobile devices) 65% 30% 62% Skype Connectivity (Supports calls between Lync and any Skype user) Skype Connectivity 41% (Supports calls between Lync and 41% any Skype user) 30% 68% Lync Online (Microsoft s version of Hosted IP Telephony) Lync Online 29% (Microsoft s version of Hosted IP Telephony) 59% 34% 62% % Extremely Likely % Very Likely % Extremely Likely % Very Likely Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 43 of 85

44 Effect of Skype Acquisition on Decision to Implement Lync with Enterprise Voice In 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype, an IP Telephony service targeted primarily at the consumer market. Then in late 2012, Microsoft transferred the Lync organization out of the Microsoft Office business unit into the Skype business unit. In mid-2013, Microsoft introduced an enhancement to Lync which enabled Lync users to make phone calls over Skype. In our survey, we asked Enterprises whether Microsoft s acquisition of Skype had any effect on the Enterprise s decision to implement Lync with Enterprise Voice. Exhibit 25 shows the Enterprise responses to that question. 90% of the Enterprises responded that the Skype acquisition had a positive effect on their decision regarding Lync. The other 10% said it had no effect on their decision to implement Lync. None of the Enterprise decision-makers felt that Skype had any negative effect on their Lync decision. Both LE (47%) and ME (39%) decision-makers felt that the most positive effect of the Skype acquisition was that it demonstrated Microsoft s commitment to the Voice market. 25% of the MEs and one-third of the LEs acknowledged that the effect was positive because they currently utilized Skype in their companies. 18% of the MEs and LEs noted the positive effect due to the integration of Lync and Skype. Exhibit 25 Effect of Skype Acquisition on Decision to Implement Lync with Enterprise Voice Among Current/future Implementers Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Positive effect because it demonstrated Microsoft s commitment to the voice market Positive effect because it demonstrated 47% Microsoft s commitment to the voice market 39% Positive effect because we currently utilize Skype in our company Positive effect because we currently utilize 25% Skype in our company 33% Positive effect because of the potential integration of Lync and Skype Positive effect because of the potential 18% integration of Lync and Skype 18% No effect because Skype was not part of our decision whether to deploy Lync No effect because Skype was not part of our 10% decision whether to deploy Lync 10% Negative effect because enhancing Skype may divert resources away from Lync 0% Negative effect because enhancing Skype may divert resources away from Lync 0% Negative effect if we were required to implement Skype along with Lync 0% Negative effect if we were required to implement Skype along with Lync 0% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 44 of 85

45 Likelihood of Implementing Skype Functions during Next Few Years Exhibit 26 shows the percent of Enterprises which are deploying Lync that were Extremely Likely to implement various Skype functions during the next few years. 53% of Large Enterprises and 45% of Medium Enterprises said that their Lync users were Extremely Likely to utilize Skype for making and receiving voice calls. Almost as many LEs (43%) and MEs (39%) were Extremely Likely to utilize Skype for making and receiving video calls. When asked whether the Skype calling would focus on consumer customers or business customers/suppliers, it was a virtual tie, with each receiving about a 40% Extremely Likely response. Overall, the Enterprise decision-makers seemed quite positive on the synergy between Lync and Skype and the opportunity to utilize Skype for business purposes while potentially reducing their public network costs for voice and video calling. Exhibit 26 Likelihood of Implementing Skype functions during Next Few Years Among Current/future Implementers Medium Enterprise Small Business Large Enterprise Making and receiving voice calls Making and receiving voice calls Making and receiving voice calls 45% 32% 53% Making and receiving video calls Making and receiving video calls Skype calling with your business Skype calling customers with or your suppliers business customers or suppliers Skype calling with your Skype calling with your consumer customers consumer customers Skype Skype calling calling among among the the employees employees of your of your company company Making and receiving video 39% calls 34% Skype calling with your business 35% customers 24% or suppliers Skype calling with your 39% 16% consumer customers Skype calling among the employees 13% 37% of your company % Extremely Likely 43% 41% 39% 33% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 45 of 85

46 Enterprise Plans for Replacing/Retaining Existing Telephony Systems During Lync Deployment Exhibit 27 shows Enterprise plans for replacing or retaining existing telephony systems during Lync deployment among current and future implementers. The most popular option among both MEs and LEs was to retain existing telephony systems and services while replacing existing deskphones on a gradual or life-cycle replacement basis. This approach is expected to be followed by 51% of MEs and 52% of LEs. However, a sizable percentage in both segments (41% of MEs and 36% of LEs) plan on one of the two options for accelerated replacement of existing deskphones, either by replacing telephony systems immediately (26% of MEs and 29% of LEs) or by retaining those systems but replacing deskphones on an accelerated basis (15% of MEs and 7% of LEs). A very small number (8% of MEs and 12% of LEs) planned to retain their existing telephony systems so that they could continue to use their existing voice mail until they were ready to migrate to MS Exchange for unified messaging. Exhibit 27 Enterprise Plans for Replacing/Retaining Existing Telephony Systems During Lync Deployment Among Current/future Implementers Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Replace existing telephony systems/services Replace existing and telephony systems/services and 26% deskphones immediately deskphones immediately Retain existing telephony systems/services Retain existing while telephony systems/services while existing deskphones are replaced on existing a gradual deskphones are replaced on a gradual 51% or life-cycle replacement basis or life-cycle replacement basis Retain existing telephony systems/services Retain existing while telephony systems/services while existing deskphones are replaced on existing an deskphones 15% are replaced on an accelerated basis accelerated basis Retain existing telephony system so Retain we can existing use telephony system so we can use our existing voice mail system until our we are existing ready voice mail 8% system until we are ready to migrate to Exchange Unified Messaging to migrate to Exchange Unified Messaging 7% 12% 29% 52% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 46 of 85

47 Enterprise Distribution of Endpoints on Deployed Lync Systems with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 28 shows the planned distribution of endpoints among enterprise users of Lync EV. The first finding from this data is that there is surprisingly little migration of endpoints between the end of the first year of implementation and two years after that. The configurations and terminal type populations implemented in the first year are seen as more or less remaining in place for the next few years. At the end of the first year of Lync deployment by Medium Enterprises, existing deskphones would account for 23% of the total endpoints, with the remaining 77% fairly evenly divided among the other three types. After the third year, existing deskphones were projected to decline to 17%, with Lync-certified SIP phones gaining 4 points from 25% to 29%. Lync PC clients and Lync Mobile clients were only expected to see a very slight increase during that time period. In the Large Enterprise segment, existing deskphones would account for 20% of the total endpoints after the first year, with the remaining 80% fairly evenly divided among the other three types. After the third year, existing deskphones were projected to decline by only one point to 19%, while Lync-certified SIP phones declined 2 points from 26% to 24%. Lync PC clients and Lync Mobile clients were only expected to increase by one to two points during that time period. Both Lync PC clients with headsets and Lync Mobile Client accounted for 25% to 30% of the endpoints, but neither one gained more than a point or two in penetration over the time period discussed. This implies that the people who really need these tools are likely to receive them as part of the initial implementation and unless these types of employees grow as a percent of total employees the distribution is unlikely to change much. Exhibit 28 Enterprise Distribution of Endpoints on Deployed Lync Systems with Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Large Enterprise Existing deskphones 23% Existing deskphones Existing deskphones 17% 20% 19% 20% 19% Lync-certified SIP phones 25% Lync-certified SIP Lync-certified phones SIP phones 29% 26% 24% 26% 24% Lync PC clients plus headsets 25% Lync PC clients plus Lync headsets PC clients plus headsets 26% 27% 29% 27% 29% Lync Mobile Client 27% Lync Mobile Client Lync Mobile Client 28% 27% 28% 27% 28% After the 1st year After the 3rd After year the 1st year After the After 1st the year 3rd year After the 3rd year Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 47 of 85

48 Primary Method for Enterprises Connecting to the PSTN for Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 29 shows the methods that enterprises expect to use to connect the Lync EV servers with the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). The most popular method was to utilize direct SIP connections from the servers to Enhanced Gateways (EGs) or Session Border Controllers (SBCs) which would provide connectivity to the PSTN. 57% of MEs and 53% of LEs would use this method. One-third of the MEs and 40% of the LEs indicated a preference for connecting the Lync EV servers to their existing IP-PBXs and using them as Gateways to the PSTN. The remaining 10% of MEs and 7% of LEs planned to utilize SIP trunks to connect directly to an Internet Telephony Service Provider. The next exhibit discusses why EGs and SBCs are so popular and more insight into how they would be utilized. Exhibit 29 Primary Method for Enterprises Connecting to the PSTN for Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Direct SIP connections to Enhanced Gateways or Session Border Controllers Direct SIP connections to Enhanced Gateways 57% or Session Border Controllers 53% Direct SIP connections to a PBX or IP-PBX Direct SIP connections 33% to a PBX or IP-PBX 40% SIP Trunking to an Internet Telephony Service Provider 10% SIP Trunking to an Internet Telephony Service Provider 7% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 48 of 85

49 Agreement Regarding Use of 3 rd Party Session Border Controllers/Enhanced Gateways Exhibit 30 provides five statements about the use of SBCs and EGs. Our survey asked the Enterprise decision-makers about their level of agreement with those statements More than 80% of MEs and 85% of LEs said that they Strongly Agree or Generally Agree with all five statements. The last four statements focused on how the SBCs and EGs were likely to be used. Of those four, the following statement had the highest percentage of Strongly Agree responses LE (50%) and ME (47%): SBCs and EGs let us gradually add Enterprise Voice to Microsoft Lync because we can still use our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones for voice. 50% of LEs also Strongly Agreed with one other statement. This statement also had the highest combined percentages of Strongly Agree and Generally Agree among LEs (97%) and MEs (89%). SBCs and EGs facilitate the migration from our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones to a hybrid environment with Lync On-Premises serving some locations and cloud-based Lync Online serving other locations. The large agreement with the above two statements further confirms that Enterprises favor a more gradual migration to Lync EV from their existing IP-PBXs than the more accelerated approaches represented in the other two statements, which received lower levels of agreement. Exhibit 30 Agreement Regarding Use of 3 rd Party Session Border Controllers/Enhanced Gateways Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise SBCs and EGs make it relatively easy to SBCs trial Microsoft and EGs make Lyncit relatively easy to trial Microsoft 50% Lync without disrupting our existing telephony without systems/services disrupting our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones and deskphones 47% SBCs and EGs let us accelerate the deployment SBCs and of EGs Lync let with us accelerate the deployment 33% of Lync with Enterprise Voice while gradually phasing Enterprise out our existing Voice while gradually phasing out our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones telephony systems/services and deskphones 53% 33% 33% 53% 53% SBCs and EGs let us gradually add Enterprise SBCs and Voice EGs tolet us gradually add Enterprise 47% Voice to Microsoft Lync because we can still use Microsoft our existing Lync because we can still use our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones telephony for voice systems/services and deskphones 36% for voice 40% 50% SBCs and EGs can support our existing IP SBCs phones and EGs so we can can support our existing 28% IP phones so we can accelerate the deployment of Lync with accelerate Enterprise the Voice deployment to of Lync with Enterprise Voice to replace our existing telephony systems/services replace our existing telephony systems/services 53% 23% 70% SBCs and EGs facilitate the migration from SBCs our and existing EGs facilitate the migration from our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones telephony to a hybrid systems/services and deskphones 28% to a hybrid environment with Lync On-Premises serving environment some locations with Lync On-Premises serving some locations 61% and cloud-based Lync Online serving other and locations cloud-based Lync Online serving other locations 50% 47% % Strongly Agree % Generally Agree % Strongly Agree % Gene Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 49 of 85

50 Enterprise Plans for Voic on Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 31 shows enterprise plans for voice mail on Lync with EV. Among the MEs, only 20% plan to continue using their current voic systems or service. 44% of MEs plan to migrate to Exchange UM (Unified Messaging) in conjunction with Microsoft Lync. The remaining 36% indicated that they were already migrating to Exchange UM. It was just the reverse among the LE segment, where 36% plan to continue using their current voic systems or service. Only 31% of LEs are planning to migrate to Exchange UM (Unified Messaging) in conjunction with Microsoft Lync. The remaining 33% were already migrating to Exchange UM. Overall, it is clear that existing voice mail systems in the Lync EV environments are being phased out, with MEs leading the way. Exhibit 31 Enterprise Plans for Voic on Lync with Enterprise Voice Plan to migrate to Exchange UM in conjunction with Microsoft Lync 31% 44% Already migrating to Exchange UM and will continue 33% 36% Plan to continue using my current voic system or service 20% 36% Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 50 of 85

51 Enterprise Preferred Vendors for IP-PBXs Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Exhibit 32 shows the changes in preferred IP-PBX vendor choices among Enterprises once Microsoft entered the Enterprise Voice market. Before Microsoft entered the Enterprise Voice Market, Cisco was the number one preferred vendor for IP-PBXs among 55% of LEs and half of the MEs. Avaya was second with 28% of LEs and 25% of MEs. The choice of preferred vendor has changed dramatically since Microsoft entered the market. Currently, 41% of LEs and 35% of MEs now view Microsoft as their preferred vendor for IP-PBXs. In our report a year ago, the percentage of Enterprises that had preferred Microsoft was about 25%. Consequently, the percentage that preferred Cisco has dropped from 50% to 35% among MEs and from 55% to 33% among LEs. The percentage that preferred Avaya dropped from 25% to 11% among MEs and from 28% to 20% among LEs. Cloud-based Hosted Service Providers were preferred by 6% of MEs and 2% of LEs, and those percentages have not changed since Microsoft s entry into the market. Preferences for Other Vendors have also declined sharply since Microsoft entered the market, with MEs decreasing from 19% to 13% and LEs dropping even faster, from 15% to 4%. The gain in the popularity of Microsoft Lync EV among Enterprises in just a few years is remarkable. Exhibit 32 Enterprise Preferred Vendors for IP-PBXs Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Vendors Avaya 11% 25% Vendors Avaya 20% 28% Cisco 35% 50% Cisco 33% 55% Microsoft Cloud-based Hosted Service Provider 0% 6% 6% Microsoft 35% Cloud-based Hosted Service Provider 0% 2% 2% 41% Other 19% 13% Other 4% 15% Before Currently Before Currently Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 51 of 85

52 Enterprise Preferred Vendors for UC Apps Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Exhibit 33 shows the changes in the choices of preferred UC Application vendors among Enterprises since Microsoft entered the Enterprise Voice market. Among MEs, the preference for Microsoft increased from 25% to 38%, and among LEs it increased from 28% to 43%. The company s entry into the Voice market significantly increased its support among Enterprises as a UC app provider. The biggest impact Microsoft s entry had on other vendors was the decline of preference for Cisco among MEs, from 42% to 33% with a smaller decline from 44% to 39% among LEs. Avaya also has undergone a sharp decline as Preferred UC App vendor dropping 8 points among LEs from 17% to 9% and 4 points from 12% to 8% among MEs. Other UC App vendors and Cloud-based Hosted Service Providers did not experience substantial declines. Exhibit 33 Enterprise Preferred Vendors for UC Apps Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Medium Enterprise Large Enterprise Vendors Avaya 12% 8% Vendors Avaya 9% 17% Cisco 33% 42% Cisco 44% 39% Microsoft Cloud-based Hosted Service Provider 2% 4% 25% Microsoft 38% Cloud-based Hosted Service Provider 2% 2% 28% 43% Other 19% 17% Other 9% 7% Before Currently Before Currently Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 52 of 85

53 4. ANALYSIS OF SMB PLANS FOR MICROSOFT LYNC ENTERPRISE VOICE Demographics of SMB Survey Participants The exhibits in this section of the report are based on responses from U.S. business and institutional entities with 5 to 499 employees. IUC refers to these entities as Small or Medium Businesses (SMBs). During April 2014, surveys were completed with over 150 qualified SMB managers or executives who are key decision-makers or key influencers regarding adoption and usage of Microsoft Lync. Exhibit 34 shows the distribution of the participating U.S. SMBs based upon their size. 36% of the respondents represented businesses with 5 to 49 employees and 14% were businesses with 50 to 99 employees. Throughout the analysis, U.S. SMBs these two size categories, comprising 50% of the respondents, are referred to as Small Businesses (SBs). 17% 5 of the 49 respondents were from businesses with between 100 and 36% 249 employees. Businesses with 250 to 499 employees accounted for 33% of the SMB participants. These two size segments comprise the Medium 50 99Business (MB) segment, representing 14% the other 50% of the respondents % Exhibit Distribution of Participating SMBs by Size 33% U.S. SMBs % % % % Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 53 of 85

54 Distribution of Participating SMBs by Type of Decision-Maker Exhibit 35 contains two graphs that show the distribution of titles and decision-making responsibilities among the SMB decision-makers who participated in this study. 57% were Executives who are responsible for business decisions, including CEOs, CFOs, COOs and Line of Business Managers. This was significantly higher than the 44% of Enterprises, indicating that SMB executives are more involved than their Enterprise counterparts in decision-making for IP Telephony and UC (Unified Communications). CIOs and Information Systems Managers, who are responsible for IT decision-making, accounted for 40% of the participants in this study. This degree of representation by IT decision-makers is not surprising as the scope of the research was quite technical and focused on Microsoft rather than process-oriented applications. The remaining 3% were Telecom Managers and Data Network Managers whose primary decision-making responsibilities involve communications systems and networks. Exhibit 35 Distribution of Participating SMBs by Type of Decision-Maker CEO 29% 3% CFO or COO 12% LoB Manager CIO 5% 16% 40% 57% Info Systems Manager 28% Applications Manager 7% Data Network Manager Telecom Manager 2% 1% Business Information Communications Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 54 of 85

55 Distribution of Participating SMBs by Industry Exhibit 36 shows the industry segment distribution of the SMB decision-makers who participated in this study. The participants represented at least 10 different industries. As in last year s report, Professional Services was the most frequently represented segment, with 20% of the respondents. Business Services was in second place with 19% of the survey participants. Rounding out the top three was Manufacturing, which accounted for 18% of the responses. The next four industries represented one-quarter of the respondents with Retail at 8%, Healthcare at 6%, followed by Wholesale and Financial Services/Insurance with 5% each. Education was next with 4%, one point more than Telecommunications and Utilities at 3% each. Exhibit 36 Distribution of Participating SMBs by Industry Professional Services Business Services Manufacturing 18% 19% 20% Retail 8% Healthcare Wholesale Financial Services/Insurance Education Utilities Telecommunications 6% 5% 5% 4% 3% 3% Other 9% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 55 of 85

56 SMB Position on Microsoft Software Products and Services Exhibit 37 shows the position taken by SMBs toward Microsoft as a provider of products and services. SMBs were strongly inclined toward reliance on the company, with 76% of Medium Businesses and 80% of Small Businesses describing themselves as Microsoft shops for at least some software. Of those, MBs were more likely to depend primarily on Microsoft for key products and services (49% of MBs versus 45% of SBs). But SBs were more likely to buy only selected products and services from Microsoft (35% of SBs versus 27% of MBs). Among those that characterized themselves as not a Microsoft shop, MBs were slightly more represented at 24% versus 20% among SBs. Compared to Enterprises, SMBs are somewhat less likely to buy from Microsoft. Exhibit 37 Services SMB Position on Microsoft Software Products and 45% 49% 35% 27% 20% 24% Our company is primarily a Microsoft shop for key software products and services Our company is a Microsoft shop for selected software products and services Our company is NOT a Microsoft shop for key software products and services Small Business Medium Business Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 56 of 85

57 SMB Status on Trialing Microsoft Lync In Exhibit 38, SMB decision-makers were asked about their plans to conduct a trial of Microsoft Lync without identifying any specific functionality. 31% of Small Businesses (SB) have no plans to conduct a trial of Microsoft Lync, up from 26% last year. 20% have completed or are currently conducting a trial, down slightly from 23% last year. 49% of SBs plan to trial Lync but have not yet started, as compared to 51% last year. Medium Businesses indicated greater interest in Lync than the Small Businesses. Only 8% of Medium Businesses (MB) have no trial plans, down somewhat from last year, when it was 13%. Almost half of MBs have either completed or are conducting trials, up significantly from 35% last year. 43% of MBs are planning to conduct trials of Microsoft Lync, although the trials have not yet started. Last year that figure was 52%. Microsoft trials are very accessible, which may be the reason for the high interest. Microsoft channel partners can use Microsoft s Proof of Concept and secure Web access to enable trials of Lync Enterprise Voice. Firms are offered softphones or Lync-certified SIP phones on a temporary basis and do not have to install Lync servers for the trials. Exhibit 38 SMB Status on Trialing Microsoft Lync Small Business Medium Business Have completed trial 6% 6% Have completed trial 10% 27% Currently conducting trial 14% Currently conducting trial 17% 22% 25% Planning to conduct trial 49% Planning to conduct trial 51% 43% 52% No plans to conduct trial 31% No plans to conduct trial 26% 8% 13% Currently A year ago Currently A year a Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 57 of 85

58 Percent of SMB Microsoft Lync Trials that Include Enterprise Voice SMB decision-makers who are trialing or plan to trial Lync were then asked whether they plan to include Enterprise Voice in their trials of Microsoft Lync. Exhibit 40 shows the results. 47% of the Small Businesses that have trialed, are trialing or plan to trial Microsoft Lync will include Enterprise Voice in their evaluations. This figure is up slightly from 44%last year. Of the MBs that indicated they have trialed or will trial Microsoft Lync, 76% also plan to include Enterprise Voice. Last year the figure was 60%. Exhibit 39 Percent of SMB Microsoft Lync Trials that Include Enterprise Voice Small Business No, Trials Do Not Include Enterprise Voice Yes, Trials Include Enterprise Voice Medium Business No, Trials Do Not Include Enterprise Voice Yes, Trials Include Enterprise Voice 53% 56% 24% 40% 47% 44% 76% 60% Current A year ago Current A year ago Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 58 of 85

59 SMB Perception of Microsoft Capabilities for Enterprise Voice Exhibit 40 shows how trials affected SMBs perception of the capabilities of Lync with Enterprise Voice. For both SBs and MBs, trialing led to an improvement in the perception of the capabilities of Lync with Enterprise Voice. Those believing that Microsoft is better than most traditional voice system manufacturers increased after trials, from 31% to 44% among SBs, and from 38% to 44% among MBs. At least half of the SBs and MBs felt that Microsoft is as good as any of the traditional voice system manufacturers. The percentage of SBs who felt that Lync with EV was not up to par with traditional voice system manufacturers dropped from 6% before the trials to zero after the trials. Among MBs the percentage declined from 9% pre-trial to 6% post-trial. Exhibit 40 SMB Perception of Microsoft Capabilities for Enterprise Voice Small Business Medium Business Microsoft is better than most traditional Microsoft is better than 31% most traditional voice system manufacturers voice system manufacturers 44% 38% 44% Microsoft is as good as any of the Microsoft is as good as any of 63% the traditional voice system manufacturerstraditional voice system manufacturers 56% 53% 50% Microsoft is not up to par with 6% Microsoft is not up to par with traditional voice system manufacturerstraditional 0% voice system manufacturers 9% 6% Pre-Trial Post-Trial Pre-Trial Post-Trial Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 59 of 85

60 Performance of Enterprise Voice during SMB Trial of Microsoft Lync This increased SMB satisfaction with the Enterprise Voice capabilities of Microsoft Lync was further confirmed in Exhibit 41. We asked the SMB decision-makers about the performance of Enterprise Voice during Microsoft Lync trials. 100% of the Small Businesses (SB) and Medium Businesses (MB) said it had met or exceeded their expectations. 44% of the Small Businesses (SB) indicated that the performance of Enterprise voice had exceeded their expectations, as did 38% of Medium Businesses (MB). Exhibit 41 Performance of Enterprise Voice during SMB Trial of Microsoft Lync 0% 0% 56% 62% 44% 38% Small Business Medium Business Exceeded expectations Met expectations Did not meet expectations Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 60 of 85

61 SMB Perspective on Startup Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 42 shows SMBs views on the relationship between the startup costs of implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice and their expectations about those costs. More than half of the SMBs indicated that the startup costs were in line with what they had expected. 6% of Small Businesses and 15% of Medium Businesses actually felt that the startup costs were lower than they had expected. However, a significant percentage -- 31% (SB) and 23% (MB) -- admitted there were some additional costs that they had not anticipated. The next Exhibit examines the ongoing costs of implementing Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice. Exhibit 42 SMB Perspective on Startup Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Small Business Medium Business The startup costs are in line with what we had expected The startup costs are in line with 57% what we had expected 59% There were some additional costs that we had not anticipated There were some additional costs 31% that we had not anticipated 23% So far the startup costs are lower than we had expected So far the startup costs are lower 6% than we had expected 15% It is too early in the process to make a determination on startup costs It is too early in the process to make 6% a determination on startup costs 3% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 61 of 85

62 SMB Perspective on Ongoing Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice We also asked the SMB decision-makers about the ongoing costs of operating and managing Lync with Enterprise Voice. Exhibit 43 provides a view of their responses. About half of the SMBs indicated that the ongoing costs were in line with what they had expected. But a significant group of SBs (36%) revealed there were some additional costs that they had not anticipated. 29% of Medium Businesses agreed that there were additional ongoing costs, but 13% of MBs actually felt the ongoing costs were lower than they had expected. 18% of SBs also said they had encountered lower ongoing costs than they had expected. The results in Exhibits 42 and 43 indicate some improvements regarding the SMB perspective on costs from the results of the study we conducted a year ago. In that study, only 6% of SBs and MBs experienced lower total costs than expected. While 69% of SBs and 34% of MBs expressed concerns that there were additional costs that they had not anticipated. In that study, only 19% of SBs along with 44% of MBs felt that the total costs were in line with what they had expected. Exhibit 43 SMB Perspective on Ongoing Costs of Implementing Lync with Enterprise Voice Small Business Medium Business The ongoing costs are in line withthe ongoing costs are in line with 46% what we had expected what we had expected 58% There were some additional coststhere were some additional costs 36% we had not anticipated we had not anticipated 29% So far the ongoing costs are lowerso far the ongoing costs are lower 18% than we had expected than we had expected 13% It is too early in the process to make It is too early in the process to make 0% a determination on ongoing costsa determination on ongoing costs 0% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 62 of 85

63 SMB Plans for Deploying Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Exhibit 44 shows SMB s plans to deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice. 18% of MBs and 6% of SBs are currently deploying Lync EV compared to 14% of MBs and 4% of SBs one year ago. The percentage of MBs that were planning to deploy Lync EV, was up sharply compared to last year (45% vs. 27%). However, among SBs only 16% were planning to deploy Lync EV, a significant reduction from 27% a year ago. 77% of the SBs were either waiting for the results of their trials before deciding whether to deploy Lync EV or had no plans to deploy. That represents an 8 point increase from last year, mostly among the Undecideds. Just the opposite occurred among the MBs where 37% were either Undecided or had No Plans to implement Microsoft Lync Enterprise Voice, down from 59% in just one year. SMBs appear to be more cautious than Enterprises. As seen earlier in Exhibit ES-3, only 17% of all Enterprises were Undecided about deploying Lync EV after trialing, while among SMBs 43% were Undecided. Exhibit 44 SMB Plans for Deploying Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Among all SMBs Small Business Medium Business Currently deploying 6% 4% Currently deploying 14% 18% Planning to deploy 16% Planning to deploy 27% 27% 45% Undecided; depends on results of trial 55% Undecided; depends on results of trial 46% 31% 49% No plans to deploy Microsoft Lync for Enterprise Voice No plans to deploy 22% Microsoft Lync for 23% Enterprise Voice 6% 10% Current A year ago Current A year ago Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 63 of 85

64 SMB Top Reasons for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials The SMBs implementing Microsoft Lync for Enterprise Voice were asked why they decided to implement it. Exhibit 45 ranks their responses. Both SBs and MBs most frequently cited lower total cost of ownership with Microsoft Lync Enterprise Voice than with PBX-based solutions. Microsoft s pricing structure bundles access to Lync in the Enterprise CAL Suite with access to popular applications, including Windows, Exchange and Sharepoint, so the incremental cost to add Lync functionality from a license standpoint is attractive. This was confirmed by the 2 nd choice among both SBs and MBs, Facilitates voice feature integration with other Microsoft applications. We have already adopted Microsoft Lync for IM and Presence is often cited as the entry point for the adoption of Lync, prior to adding Enterprise Voice, but that only ranked 4 th or 5 th in importance. Another key factor often cited is We have already invested in the Enterprise CAL suite, but that ranked only 11 th among SBs and 7 th among MBs as an important reason, indicating that licensing may not be such a major cost concern. As with Enterprises, TCO was the top reason for deployment, followed by integration with other MS software. Exhibit 45 SMB Top Reasons for Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Beyond Trials Among SMBs Deploying or Planning to Deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice Total cost of ownership (hardware, software, service support) is lower than PBX based solutions Facilitates voice feature integration with other Microsoft applications, e.g., Sharepoint, Exchange, Office We have already adopted Microsoft Lync for Web Conferencing Weighted Average SB MB Ranking SB MB We have already adopted Microsoft Lync for IM and Presence The Lync Client is superior to the user interface provided by other UC vendors Lync Enterprise Voice is a natural extension of our commitment to Microsoft Lync for UC We have already invested in the Enterprise CAL Suite Lync is available as both a premises system and a hosted service Connectivity with Skype Ease of implementation and telephony system management Lync Enterprise Voice has all the voice functionality we need Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 64 of 85

65 Factors that Fell Short of SMBs Expectations in Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice In our survey, we gave the SMBs that were deploying Lync EV another opportunity to identify any factors that fell short of their expectations. However the top-rated answer was None of these; Lync with Enterprise Voice has MET or EXCEEDED all of our expectations. There was still a group of SMBs, particularly in the MB segment, that believe that Microsoft Lync s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) was NOT lower than PBX based solutions. These SMBs were among those that earlier noted that there were some additional costs in implementing Lync EV that they had not anticipated. Another factor that fell short of the expectations of the SMB decisionmakers was Lync support for Mobility does NOT meet our needs, which ranked 2 nd among SBs and 4 th with MBs. Some SMB decision-makers expressed concern that Lync Enterprise Voice does NOT have all the voice functionality we need. But overall, it appears that as Microsoft continues to enhance the features of Microsoft Lync EV, SMBs are finding fewer concerns. Exhibit 46 Factors that Fell Short of SMBs Expectations in Deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice Among SMBs currently deploying Lync with Enterprise Voice None of these; Lync with Enterprise Voice has MET or EXCEEDED all of our expectations Total cost of ownership (hardware, software, service support) is NOT lower than PBX based solutions The Lync Client is NOT superior to the user interface provided Weighted Average SB MB Ranking SB MB Lync support for Mobility does NOT meet our needs Lync Enterprise Voice does NOT have all the voice functionality we need Lync Enterprise Voice is NOT supported by Lync Online Lync does NOT integrate easily with our existing voice system Lync does NOT facilitate telephony feature integration with other Microsoft applications, e.g., Sharepoint, Exchange, Office Lync does NOT provide ease of implementation and telephony system management Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 65 of 85

66 SMB Problems in Scaling Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 47 shows the degree to which SMBs saw or anticipated problems in scaling Lync with Enterprise Voice. The population answering this question included those who had deployed, are currently deploying and those that plan to deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice. About half (55% of SBs and 49% of MBs) found no problems scaling, while a slightly smaller group (45% for SBs and 49% for MBs) found some problems but nothing major. As expected, scaling was not a serious concern among SMBs. Exhibit 47 Voice SMB Problems in Scaling Lync with Enterprise Small Business Medium Business None None 55% 49% Some but nothing major Some but nothing 45% major 49% Considerable problems 0% Considerable problems 2% Have not been able to scale as necessary Have 0% not been able to scale as necessary 0% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 66 of 85

67 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Small Business The IUC research included several questions on the number of Lync licenses and whether they are being used. This information was used both to understand the potential demand picture and corroborate InfoTrack for Enterprise Communications shipment and installed base market share estimates for Microsoft. Exhibit 48 reflects the Small Businesses current implementation status of Microsoft Lync and Enterprise Voice licenses. Only 13% of the Small Businesses employees currently have Lync licenses, up from 10% last year. 48% of the Lync licenses are Plus CALs (required for Enterprise Voice) compared to 52% last year. 33% of the Small Businesses Plus CAL licenses are activated with users, down slightly from 35% a year ago. Overall, about 2.1% of Small Business employees have activated Lync Enterprise Voice licenses, a small increase over 1.8% last year. (These numbers represent current installed base, not annual shipments/implementations). Exhibit 48 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Small Business Lync licenses as % of total employees Plus CAL as % of Lync Licenses % Plus CAL licenses in actual use Lync Enterprise Voice licenses in use as % of total employees Current 13% 48% 33% 2.1% A year ago 52% 35% 10% 1.8% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 67 of 85

68 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Business Exhibit 49 depicts Medium Businesses current implementation status of Microsoft Lync licenses. 18% of Medium Business employees have Lync licenses, up from 13% last year. 54% of those Lync licenses are Plus CALs and 39% of the Plus CAL licenses are activated, both about the same as a year ago.. Overall, 3.8% of Medium Business employees have activated Lync Plus CAL licenses. This is quite high considering the short time that Lync Enterprise Voice has been available, and it represents an increase from last year, when the figure was 2.9%. (These numbers represent the current view of installed base, not annual shipments/ implementations). Note that the demographics stated above and elsewhere in this report are based on the survey respondent populations and have a confidence interval of at least ±10%. Exhibit 49 Current Status of Licenses for Lync with Enterprise Voice Medium Business Lync licenses as % of total employees Plus CAL as % of Lync Licenses % Plus CAL licenses in actual use Lync Enterprise Voice licenses in use as % of total employees Current 18% 54% 39% 3.8% A year ago 55% 40% 13% 2.9% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 68 of 85

69 Projected SMB Deployment of Licenses for Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 50 shows SMBs projections of Enterprise Voice licenses as a percentage of the total number of employees, for the years 2015 and A small amount of growth is projected among Small Businesses in each of those years, with percentages increasing from 2.1% to 2.8% and 3.4%. Medium Businesses expect somewhat higher growth from 3.8% to 5.5% and then 7.5%. As in 2013 (figures also shown in Exhibits 48 and 49, above), Medium Businesses plan to deploy proportionally more licenses than Small Businesses by a factor of about two in each of the forecasted years. Exhibit 50 Projected SMB Deployment of Licenses for Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice 7.5% 5.5% 2.1% 3.8% 2.8% 3.4% Small Business Medium Business Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 69 of 85

70 Scope of Planned SMB Deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 51 shows how extensively SMBs plan to deploy Lync with EV (among those who stated they plan to implement). SBs most likely deployment plans were selected individuals, throughout specific departments business units and at selected locations as the need arises. These were equally likely at 27% each, the same as last year. Throughout your home country was the next most preferred plan. MBs most likely plan was throughout your home country, with almost 40% of MBs selecting this course of action, up from 32% last year. while throughout specific departments or business units was a close second with 32%. At selected locations as the need arises was third at 19% up from 12%. Selected individuals was fourth at 10%, down by half from 20% a year ago. Overall, the MB plans for deploying Lync EV looked a lot more like those of the Enterprise segments than those of the smaller SB segment. Exhibit 51 Scope of Planned SMB Deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice Among Current/future Implementers Small Business Medium Business Selected individuals 27% Selected individuals 27% 10% 20% At selected locations as the need arisesat selected locations as the need 27% arises (e.g., replace outdated PBX) (e.g., replace outdated 27% PBX) 12% 19% Throughout specific departments or business units Throughout specific departments 27% or business 27% units 28% 32% Throughout your home country 19% Throughout your home country 13% 32% 39% Globally 0% 6% Globally 0% 8% Current A year ago Current A year ago Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 70 of 85

71 SMB Organization Responsible for Decision to Deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 52 shows which organizations within SMBs were responsible for the decision to implement Lync EV. C-level Executives ranked first among SBs, while the IT organization responsible for Unified Communications had the highest ranking among MBs. Among both the SBs and MBs, the multi-department committee responsible for Telephony ranked 2 nd and the IT organization responsible for Desktop Applications placed 3 rd. In general, the percentages for the other lower ranking organizations, tracked fairly closely with each other across the two segments of SB and MB. Compared to the Enterprise organizations, C-level executives within SMBs are much more involved and responsible for the decisions to deploy these solutions. Exhibit 52 SMB Organization Responsible for Decision to Deploy Lync with Enterprise Voice Small Business IT organization responsible for Telephony IT organization 6% responsible for Telephony Medium Business 10% IT organization responsible for Unified IT Communications organization responsible for Unified 10% Communications 35% IT organization responsible for Desktop IT organization Applicationsresponsible for Desktop 14% Applications 12% Multi-department committee responsible Multi-department for Telephonycommittee responsible for 21% Telephony 19% Multi-department committee responsible Multi-department committee responsible 6% for Unified Communications for Unified Communications Multi-department committee responsible Multi-department committee responsible 6% for Desktop Applications for Desktop Applications 2% 8% C-Level Executive C-Level Executive 29% 8% Other 8% Other 6% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 71 of 85

72 SMB Ratings of Microsoft Dealers in Terms of Voice Expertise Exhibit 53 shows how SMB decision-makers rated Microsoft dealers in terms of voice expertise. More than 80% of the SMBs rated their Microsoft dealers as either Good or Excellent in terms of voice expertise, led by Medium Businesses at 91% and Small Businesses at 84%. For the MB segment, this is a significant improvement over the ratings of Microsoft dealers a year ago. In our report last year, 79% of the LEs rated their Microsoft dealers as either Good or Excellent in terms of voice expertise, with 34% receiving the Excellent ratings and 45% judged to be Good. The Excellent ratings increased by 14 percentage points in just one year. There was no improvement in the SB segment with Excellent ratings actually dropping from 24% a year ago to 21%, currently. Exhibit 53 SMB Ratings of Microsoft Dealers in Terms of Voice Expertise 3% 2% 13% 7% 43% 63% 21% 48% Small Business Medium Business Excellent Good Fair Poor Don t know Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 72 of 85

73 Resources Used Extensively During Deployment of Lync with Enterprise Voice In our survey, we asked the SMB decision-makers the extent to which they had used support resources during their deployment of Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice. Exhibit 54 shows the percentage of SMBs that indicated Extensive Use. Local or Regional Service Providers had the highest score for Extensive Use from 50% of the SBs and 48% of the MBs. Half of the SBs also said they received extensive support from Local or Regional Partners. This group received the second highest score from MBs at 44%. Internal Resources received the 3 rd highest score with 40% of the SBs and 37% of the MBs indicating that they had made Extensive Use of their internal IT resources in deploying Lync EV. It is interesting that a significant percentage of SMBs made Extensive Use of more than one of these types of support resources. Apparently half SMBs were using Service Providers along with internal resources to support the implementation of a Hosted version of Lync EV, while the other half were using Partners plus internal resources to support premises-based versions of Lync EV. Exhibit 54 Resources Used Extensively During Deployment of Lync with Enterprise Voice Among Current/future Implementers Small Business Medium Business Local or Regional Partner 50% Local or Regional Partner 44% National or Global Partner/Systems Integrator 10% National or Global Partner/Systems Integrator 22% Local or Regional Service Provider Local or Regional Service Provider 50% 48% National or Global Service Provider 0% National or Global Service Provider 4% Internal Resources Internal 40% Resources 37% Other 0% Other 0% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 73 of 85

74 SMB Familiarity with Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Exhibit 55 shows the degree of familiarity among Small and Medium Businesses with the enhancements to Lync which Microsoft has introduced in the past 12 months. At least 70% of Medium Businesses were Extremely Familiar or Very Familiar with recent enhancements to Lync in five categories. The two categories whose enhancements had the highest percentage of Extremely Familiar ratings were Videoconferencing (52%) and Skype Connectivity (43%). Enhancements to Lync Client apps and Lync Online were next, with Extremely Familiar ratings of 30% and 28%. MBs were least familiar (24%) with enhancements to Mobile Endpoints. In the SB segment, at least 40% were Extremely Familiar or Very Familiar with recent enhancements to Lync in the five categories, except Mobile Endpoints (37%). The category whose enhancements had the highest percentage of Extremely Familiar ratings was Skype Connectivity (26%), but Videoconferencing was a strong second at 24%. There was a significant drop off in SB familiarity with enhancements in the other three categories, each of which received an Extremely Familiar rating of only 8% to 16%. The next two exhibits will examine whether SMBs believe these enhancements meet their needs and the likelihood that they will implement these enhancements. Exhibit 55 Lync SMB Familiarity with Enhancements to Microsoft Small Business Medium Business Videoconferencing 24% Videoconferencing 34% 39% 52% Lync Client (Interface App on Desktop and Mobile devices) Lync Client 16% (Interface App on Desktop and Mobile 24% devices) 30% 48% Mobile Endpoints (Lync support for a variety of Mobile devices) Mobile Endpoints 13% (Lync support for a variety of Mobile 24% devices) 24% 48% Skype Connectivity (Supports calls between Lync and any Skype user) Skype Connectivity (Supports 26% calls between Lync and 21% any Skype user) 43% 43% Lync Online (Microsoft s version of Hosted IP Telephony) Lync 8% Online (Microsoft s version of Hosted IP Telephony) 34% 28% 46% % Extremely Familiar % Very Familiar% Extremely Familiar % Very Familiar Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 74 of 85

75 Perception of Whether Enhancements Meet SMB Needs Exhibit 56 shows the extent to which Small and Medium Businesses believe that the enhancements to Lync which Microsoft has introduced in the past 12 months will meet their needs. At least 70% of Medium Businesses believed that the recent enhancements to Lync would Fully Meet or Mostly Meet their needs in those five categories. The category whose enhancements had the highest percentage of Fully Meets Needs ratings was Videoconferencing (48%). Enhancements to Lync Client App (37%) and Skype Connectivity (35%) had the next highest ratings for Fully Meets Needs. Enhancements to the Mobile Endpoints and Lync Online had the lowest MB rating for Fully Meets Needs at 30% and 26% respectively. In the SB segment, at least half felt that the recent enhancements to Lync would Fully Meet or Mostly Meet their needs in those five categories. The category whose enhancements had the highest percentage of Fully Meets Needs ratings was Lync Online (24%), with Videoconferencing and Skype Connectivity in second at 21%. Enhancements in the other two categories, received Fully Meets Needs ratings of only 11% to 16%. Although Lync Online still does not support Enterprise Voice even with these enhancements, that does not appear to be a significant issue among SMB decision-makers, as they are most likely using it for its non-voice applications. Exhibit 56 Needs Perception of Whether Enhancements Meet SMB Small Business Small Business Medium Business 21% 21% Videoconferencing Videoconferencing 48% Videoconferencing 50% 50% 39% Lync Client (Interface Lync App Client on (Interface Lync App 16% Client on (Interface App 16% on 37% Desktop and Mobile Desktop devices) and Mobile Desktop devices) and Mobile devices) 45% 45% 43% Mobile Endpoints (Lync Mobile support Endpoints for (Lync Mobile support 11% Endpoints for (Lync support 11% for 30% a variety of Mobile devices) a variety of Mobile devices) a variety of Mobile 39% devices) 39% 48% Skype Connectivity (Supports Skype Connectivity calls (Supports Skype Connectivity calls 21% (Supports calls 21% 35% between Lync and any between Skype Lync user) and any between Skype user) Lync and any 37% Skype user) 37% 37% Lync Online (Microsoft s Lync version Online (Microsoft s Lync version Online 24% (Microsoft s version 24% 26% of Hosted IP Telephony) of Hosted IP Telephony) of Hosted IP 37% Telephony) 37% 50% % Whose Needs Are Fully % Whose Met Needs % Whose Are Fully % Needs Whose Met Are Needs Mostly % Whose Are Met Fully Needs Met Are Mostly % Whose Met Needs Are Mostly M Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 75 of 85

76 Likelihood of SMBs Implementing Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Exhibit 57 displays the likelihood that Small and Medium Businesses will implement the enhancements to Lync which Microsoft has introduced in the past 12 months. At least 70% of Medium Businesses were Extremely Likely or Very Likely to implement the recent enhancements to Lync in five categories, except for Lync Online at 55%. The two categories which had the highest percentage of Extremely Likely ratings were Videoconferencing (74%) and Lync Client apps (65%). Enhancements to Skype Connectivity were next with an Extremely Likely rating of 61%. MBs were least likely to implement the enhancements to Mobile Endpoints and Lync Online, which received Extremely Likely ratings of 52% and 33%. In the SB segment, at least 50% were Extremely Likely or Very Likely to implement the recent enhancements to Lync in the five categories. The category whose enhancements received the highest percentage of Extremely Likely ratings was Skype Connectivity (42%), and Lync Online and the Lync Client app were second at 39% each. The two enhancements with the lowest SB Extremely Likely rating were Mobile Endpoints at 26% and Videoconferencing at 34%. The category whose enhancements received the highest combination of Extremely Likely and Very Likely ratings from SB decision-makers was Videoconferencing. However, SBs gave it the second to lowest Extremely Likely rating, which is probably more indicative of the actual SB likelihood of implementation. Exhibit 57 Likelihood of SMBs Implementing Enhancements to Microsoft Lync Small Business Medium Business Videoconferencing 34% Videoconferencing 39% 13% 74% Lync Client (Interface App on Desktop and Mobile devices) Lync Client (Interface 39% App on Desktop and 24% Mobile devices) 11% 65% Mobile Endpoints (Lync support for Mobile Endpoints (Lync 26% support for a variety of Mobile devices) a variety of Mobile 32% devices) 22% 52% Skype Connectivity (Supports calls between Lync and any Skype user) Skype Connectivity (Supports 42% calls between Lync and 26% any Skype user) 20% 61% Lync Online (Microsoft s version of Hosted IP Telephony) Lync Online (Microsoft s 39% version of Hosted 26% IP Telephony) 22% 33% % Extremely Likely % Very Likely % Extremely Likely % Very Likely Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 76 of 85

77 Effect of Skype Acquisition on SMB Decision to Implement Lync with Enterprise Voice In 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype, an IP Telephony service targeted primarily at the consumer market. Then in late 2012, Microsoft transferred the Lync organization out of the Microsoft Office business unit into the Skype business unit. In mid-2013, Microsoft introduced an enhancement to Lync which enabled Lync users to make phone calls over Skype. In our survey, we asked SMBs whether Microsoft s acquisition of Skype had any effect on the SMB s decision to implement Lync with Enterprise Voice. Exhibit 58 shows the SMB responses to that question. 85% of the MBs and 76% of SBs responded that the Skype acquisition had a positive effect on their decision regarding Lync. The other 15% of MBs and 24% of SBs said it had no effect on their decision to implement Lync. None of the SMB decision-makers felt that Skype had any negative effect on their Lync decision. Both SB (40%) and MB (32%) decision-makers felt that the most positive effect of the Skype acquisition was because they currently utilized Skype in their companies. 30% of the MBs and 18% of the SBs felt that it demonstrated Microsoft s commitment to the Voice market. 18% of the SBs and 23% of the MBs noted the positive effect due to the potential integration of Lync and Skype. Exhibit 58 Effect of Skype Acquisition on SMB Decision to Implement Lync with Enterprise Voice Among Current/future Implementers Small Business Medium Business Positive effect because it demonstrated Microsoft s commitment to the voice market Positive effect because it demonstrated 18% Microsoft s commitment to the voice market 30% Positive effect because we currently utilize Skype in our company Positive effect because we currently utilize 40% Skype in our company 32% Positive effect because of the potential integration of Lync and Skype Positive effect because of the potential 18% integration of Lync and Skype 23% No effect because Skype was not part of our decision whether to deploy Lync No effect because Skype was not part of our 24% decision whether to deploy Lync 15% Negative effect because enhancing Skype may divert resources away from Lync 0% Negative effect because enhancing Skype may divert resources away from Lync 0% Negative effect if we were required to implement Skype along with Lync 0% Negative effect if we were required to implement Skype along with Lync 0% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 77 of 85

78 Likelihood of SMBs Implementing Skype Functions During the Next Few Years Exhibit 59 shows the percent of SMBs which are deploying Lync that were Extremely Likely to implement various Skype functions during the next few years. 33% of Medium Businesses and 34% of Small Businesses said that their Lync users were Extremely Likely to utilize Skype for making and receiving video calls. Almost as many SBs (32%) and MBs (28%) were Extremely Likely to utilize Skype for making and receiving voice calls. When asked whether the Skype calling would focus on consumer customers or business customers/suppliers, the MBs were more likely to use Skype calling with consumer customers (33%) vs. business customers (24% ). SBs had the opposite opinion, 24% vs. 16% in favor of business customers. Overall, the SMB decision-makers were not as positive as their Enterprise counterparts on the synergy between Lync and Skype and the opportunity to utilize Skype for business purposes. Exhibit 59 Likelihood of SMBs Implementing Skype functions during Next Few Years Among Current/future Implementers Small Business Medium Business Making and receiving voice calls Making and receiving voice 32% calls 28% Making and receiving video calls Skype calling with your business customers or suppliers Skype calling with your consumer customers Skype calling among the employees of your company Making and receiving video 34% calls Skype calling with your business 24% customers or suppliers Skype calling with your 16% consumer customers Skype calling among the employees 13% of your company % Extremely Likely % Extremely Likely 24% 30% 33% 33% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 78 of 85

79 SMB Plans for Replacing/Retaining Existing Telephony Systems During Lync Deployment Exhibit 60 shows SMB plans for replacing or retaining existing telephony systems during Lync deployment. The most popular option among both SBs and MBs was to replace existing telephony systems/services and deskphones immediately (each with 36%). This was followed by retain existing telephony systems/services while deskphones are replaced on an accelerated basis (27% of SBs and 32% of MBs). A significant percentage in both segments (28% of SBs and 29% of MBs) still preferred a more gradual approach by retaining existing telephony systems and services while replacing existing deskphones on a gradual or life-cycle replacement basis. This more gradual approach was favored by a majority of the Enterprise implementers of Lync EV. 3% of MBs and 9% of SBs planned to retain their existing telephony systems so that they could continue to use their existing voice mail until they are ready to migrate to MS Exchange messaging. Exhibit 60 SMB Plans for Replacing/Retaining Existing Telephony Systems During Lync Deployment Among Current/future Implementers Small Business Medium Business Replace existing telephony systems/services Replace and existing telephony systems/services and 36% deskphones immediately deskphones immediately Retain existing telephony systems/services Retain while existing telephony systems/services while existing deskphones are replaced on a existing gradual deskphones are replaced on 28% a gradual or life-cycle replacement basis or life-cycle replacement basis Retain existing telephony systems/services Retain while existing telephony systems/services while existing deskphones are replaced on an existing deskphones are replaced 27% on an accelerated basis accelerated basis Retain existing telephony system so we Retain can use existing telephony system so we can use our existing voice mail system until we our are existing ready voice mail 9% system until we are ready to migrate to Exchange Unified Messaging to migrate to Exchange Unified Messaging 3% 29% 32% 36% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 79 of 85

80 Distribution of Endpoints on SMB Deployed Lync Systems with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 61 shows the distribution of endpoints among SMB users of Lync EV. The first finding from this data is that more than half of the MB users of Lync EV and about 40% of SB users do not expect to be using a phone as their preferred endpoint after the first year of implementing Lync EV. Instead of using either their existing deskphone or a new Lync-certified SIP phone, they plan to use either the Lync Mobile Client on their smartphone or the Lync client app and softphone on their PC. The second finding is the surprisingly modest migration of endpoints over time. Between the end of the first year and the end of the third year, SMBs only plan to replace an additional 5% of the existing deskphones. Exhibit 61 Distribution of Endpoints on SMB Deployed Lync Systems with Enterprise Voice Small Business Medium Business Medium Business Existing deskphones Lync-certified SIP phones Lync PC clients plus headsets Lync Mobile Client 31% Existing deskphones Existing deskphones 26% 30% Lync-certified SIP phones Lync-certified SIP phones 29% 17% Lync PC clients plus headsets Lync PC clients plus headsets 21% 22% Lync Mobile Client Lync Mobile Client 24% 17% 22% 17% 25% 25% 26% 28% 27% 30% 22% 25% 25% 26% 28% 27% 30% After the 1st year After the 3rd year After the 1st year After the 1st year After the 3rd year After the 3rd year Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 80 of 85

81 Primary Method for SMBs Connecting to the PSTN for Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 62 shows the methods that SMBs expect to use to connect the Lync EV servers with the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). The most popular method was to utilize direct SIP connections from the Lync EV servers to their existing IP-PBXs and use them as Gateways to the PSTN. 55% of SBs and 45% of MBs would use this method. Another 45% of the MBs and 27% of the SBs indicated a preference for connecting the servers to Enhanced Gateways (EGs) or Session Border Controllers (SBCs) which would provide connectivity to the PSTN. The remaining 10% of MBs and 18% of SBs planned to utilize SIP trunks to connect directly to an Internet Telephony Service Provider. Exhibit 62 Primary Method for SMBs Connecting to the PSTN for Lync with Enterprise Voice Small Business Medium Business Direct SIP connections to Enhanced Gateways or Session Border Controllers Direct SIP connections to Enhanced 27% Gateways or Session Border Controllers 45% Direct SIP connections to a PBX or IP-PBX Direct SIP connections 55% to a PBX or IP-PBX 45% SIP Trunking to an Internet Telephony Service Provider SIP Trunking to an Internet 18% Telephony Service Provider 10% Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 81 of 85

82 SMB Agreement on Use of 3 rd Party Session Border Controllers/Enhanced Gateways Exhibit 63 provides five statements about the use of SBCs and EGs. Our survey asked the SMB decision-makers about their level of agreement with those statements 91% of MBs and 69% of SBs said that they Strongly Agree or Generally Agree with the first statement that SBCs and EGs make it relatively easy to trial Lync with Enterprise voice. The last four statements focused on how the SBCs and EGs were likely to be used. Of those four, the following statement had the highest percentage of Strongly Agree responses from MBs (42%): SBCs and EGs facilitate the migration from our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones to a hybrid environment with Lync On-Premises serving some locations and cloud-based Lync Online serving other locations. The statement that had the highest percentages of Strongly Agree among SBs (31%) was: SBCs and EGs let us gradually add Enterprise Voice to Microsoft Lync because we can still use our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones for voice. Although the MBs and SBs did not agree regarding the best way to use SBCs and EGs, the MB preference carries more weight because only 27% of SBs indicated that they planned to use them, as noted in Exhibit 62. Exhibit 63 SMB Agreement on Use of 3 rd Party Session Border Controllers/Enhanced Gateways Small Business Medium Business SBCs and EGs make it relatively easy to trial SBCs Microsoft and EGs Lync make it relatively easy to trial Microsoft 31% Lync without disrupting our existing telephony without systems/services disrupting our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones and deskphones 38% 33% 58% SBCs and EGs let us accelerate the deployment SBCs and of Lync EGs let with us accelerate the deployment 23% of Lync with Enterprise Voice while gradually phasing Enterprise out our existing Voice while gradually phasing out our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones telephony systems/services and deskphones 38% 13% 71% SBCs and EGs let us gradually add Enterprise SBCs Voice and EGs to let us gradually add Enterprise 31% Voice to Microsoft Lync because we can still use our Microsoft existinglync because we can still use our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones telephony for voice systems/services and deskphones for 38% voice SBCs and EGs can support our existing IP SBCs phones and so EGs we can support our existing IP 23% phones so we can accelerate the deployment of Lync with Enterprise accelerate Voice the deployment to of Lync with Enterprise Voice to replace our existing telephony systems/services replace our existing telephony systems/services 31% 29% 33% 50% 54% SBCs and EGs facilitate the migration from SBCs our and existing EGs facilitate the migration from our existing telephony systems/services and deskphones telephony to a hybrid systems/services and deskphones 23% to a hybrid environment with Lync On-Premises serving environment some locations with Lync On-Premises serving 23% some locations and cloud-based Lync Online serving other and locations cloud-based Lync Online serving other locations 33% 42% % Strongly Agree % Generally Agree % Strongly Agree % Generally Agree Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 82 of 85

83 SMB Plans for Voic on Lync with Enterprise Voice Exhibit 64 shows SMB plans for voice mail on Lync with EV. Those that are already migrating to Exchange Unified Messaging and plan to continue to do so was the preferred method, with 46% of SBs and 36% of MBs indicating this approach. Among SBs, the second highest preference (36%) was to migrate to Exchange UM in conjunction with Lync EV. Only 18% plan to continue to use their current voice mail system. MBs could not agree on their second choice with 32% planning to continue using their current voic system and the other 32% planning to migrate to Exchange UM in conjunction with Lync EV. However, overall it is clear that Lync is going to help Microsoft sell Exchange UM as the Lync Enterprise Voice installed base grows. Exhibit 64 SMB Plans for Voic on Lync with Enterprise Voice Plan to migrate to Exchange UM in conjunction with Microsoft Lync 32% 36% Already migrating to Exchange UM and will continue 36% 46% Plan to continue using my current voic system or service 18% 32% Small Business Medium Business Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 83 of 85

84 SMB Preferred Vendor for IP-PBXs Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Exhibit 65 shows the changes in preferred IP-PBX vendor choices among SMBs since Microsoft entered the Enterprise Voice market. Currently, only 8% of SBs and 21% of MBs indicated that Microsoft was their preferred IP-PBX vendor. These are substantially lower than the Enterprises that preferred Microsoft as shown in Exhibit 32. Since Microsoft entered the market, MBs that preferred Avaya declined from 33% to 29%, while preferences for Other telephony systems vendors went from 41% to 29%. Preferences for Cisco declined from 24% to 19% among these MB decision-makers. Much smaller declines occurred among SBs with preferences for Cisco and the Other vendors dropping by 3 points along with a reduction of 2 points for Avaya. Exhibit 65 SMB Preferred Vendor for IP-PBXs Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Small Business Small Business Vendors Vendors Vendors 26% Avaya 26% Avaya Avaya 24% 24% 16% Cisco 16% Cisco Cisco 13% 13% 0% Microsoft 0% Microsoft Microsoft 8% 8% Cloud-based Cloud-based Hosted Hosted 11% Cloud-based 11% Hosted Service Provider Service Provider 11% 11% Service Provider 47% Other Other Other 44% Medium Business 33% 29% 24% 19% 0% 21% 2% 2% 47% 44% 29% 41% Before Currently Before Currently Before Currently Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 84 of 85

85 SMB Preferred Vendor for UC Apps Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Exhibit 66 shows the changes in preferred UC Application vendor choices among SMBs since Microsoft entered the Enterprise Voice market. Since the company s entry into the Voice market, Microsoft has more than doubled its support among SMBs as a UC app vendor since it entered the voice market. Among SBs, preference for Microsoft jumped from 11% to 26%, and among MBs it increased from 14% to 30%. During that period, preferences for Avaya as the preferred UC vendor among MBs dropped 9 points from 25% to 16%, while Other lost 7 points. Cisco had a much smaller decline among the MBs, going from 21% to 19%. Among SBs, preferences for Cisco and Avaya were lower by only 2 points, while preferences for vendors in the Other category declined substantially from 39% to 26%. Exhibit 66 SMB Preferred Vendor for UC Apps Before Microsoft Entered the Enterprise Voice Market vs. Currently Vendors Avaya Cisco Microsoft Cloud-based Hosted Service Provider Other Small Business 11% 11% 13% 21% 19% 18% 16% 26% 26% Vendors Avaya Cisco Microsoft Cloud-based Hosted Service Provider 39% Other Medium Business 25% 16% 21% 19% 14% 30% 7% 9% 33% 26% Before Currently Before Curren Copyright 2014 T3i Group All rights reserved June 2014 Page 85 of 85