2015 North America Video Conferencing Services Buyer s Guide

Transcription

1 2015 North America Video Conferencing Services Buyer s Guide What Decision Makers Should Know about Top Providers November 2014

2 Contents Executive Summary... 3 Key Questions This Study Will Answer:... 4 Market Definitions... 5 Criteria for Provider Inclusion... 6 Top Provider Profiles... 7 AGT... 7 AT&T Blue Jeans Network BT Conferencing Glowpoint IVCi Orange Business Services Verizon Whitlock Yorktel Zoom The Last Word Appendix Legal Disclaimer The Frost & Sullivan Story

3 Executive Summary There is a high level of inconsistency in solutions available from a diverse array of suppliers. Furthermore, it is difficult to gather consistent information about the services offered from different providers. This report profiles a range of the leading providers in North America and make available to decisions-makers portfolio and positioning information to help them get started with the process of selecting providers. The North American video conferencing services market is increasingly dynamic; the rise of software-based solutions has accelerated innovation. Technology advancements are broadening the use cases for video conferencing while lowering the barriers to entry for both customers and service providers. Software-based solutions are a catalyst for new business models and increased competition among a growing cast of competitors including: equipment vendors; traditional conferencing service providers (CSPs); non-traditional providers that are crossing over into video conferencing; and startups. The advancement of more reliable, high-quality, feature-rich, yet comparatively affordable hosted and cloud services mean that more customer organizations can readily adopt or expand their video conferencing capabilities. Managed services continue to play an important role for organizations with existing video conferencing assets, such as multi-point control units (MCUs), gateways and endpoints that prefer to outsource operations to trusted providers. The market remains dominated by well-established providers who are continually pushed to evolve by changing customer requirements as well as by the initiatives of smaller, newer and more nimble market entrants. Price is one of many considerations. There are significant differences among the various providers in terms of support capabilities, financial and development resources, solutions focus and target markets. Knowing how providers are positioned and what their overall capabilities are will allow prospective customers to quickly whittle down their candidates. Public cloud services are becoming more widely available as providers of all types seek to tap into smaller customer accounts as well as smaller deployments within large customer organizations with cost-effective, feature-rich solutions. 3

4 Telepresence exchange and bridging services remain prominent offerings from tier-1 service providers catering to large end-user organizations. Many of these same providers have trailed smaller providers with regards to the roll-out of public cloud service delivery. Larger providers lean on the value proposition of end-to-end service wraps, including network access, managed network, multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), Internet protocol (IP) virtual private network (VPN), security, and other services. Multi-tenant architectures as the basis of hosted services are common, with private cloud and dedicated hosted services not consistently offered by providers. One size does not fit all. Customer decision-makers must take into account their companies current and roadmap requirements. These must be aligned with those of their chosen providers. Key Questions This Study Will Answer: Who are the leading video conferencing services providers in North America? What services does each one offer? What are their strengths and differentiators? What factors are driving services evolution? What should buyers consider when investigating these and other prospective providers 4

5 Market Definitions This research focuses on video conferencing services offered by conferencing service providers (CSPs) who offer managed and/or hosted and cloud services. Hosted and Cloud Video Conferencing Services: This category encompasses multi-point bridging and meet-me video conferencing services that enable point-to-point and multi-point video meetings. In all cases, the video bridging infrastructure (bridges/multi-point control units/gateways) and associated software reside in the service provider hosting environment, and is owned and operated by the service provider. Dedicated hosting services as well as multi-tenant cloud services are included in this category. Also included are gateway, scheduling, concierge, events management, and other associated services. The hosted video conferencing services market also encompasses subscription-based cloud video conferencing services, including virtual meeting rooms. Virtual meeting rooms (VMR) are on-demand, multi-party video conferencing services that enable "all you can use" personal virtual meeting rooms that are subscribed to on an OPEX basis. Users can scale capacity up or down depending on their needs via licensing. These features differentiate VMRs from traditional hosted bridging services that support scheduled sessions. Note: Video capabilities offered as part of web conferencing applications (e.g., Cisco WebEx, Citrix GoToMeeting), unified communications clients (e.g., Microsoft Lync), voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services, and toll bypass (e.g., Skype) are excluded from this category. Managed Video Conferencing Services: This service category involves the management of customer-owned video conferencing infrastructure and endpoint equipment that is typically deployed on the customer s premises. In some cases infrastructure is deployed on the service provider s premises. Managed service provider (MSP) offerings typically include a range of services delivered either on-site or remotely through a central video network operations center (VNOC). VNOC-based services for video conferencing systems, endpoint and bandwidth management, monitoring, and value-add software applications are included in this category. Excluded are any hardware sales or leasing, installation, equipment maintenance, network maintenance, planning services, systems integration, network/transport. 5

6 Exchange services are designed to facilitate connectivity and interoperability of multi-codec immersive telepresence endpoints. In addition to endpoints, exchange services also typically utilize customer-owned premises-based infrastructure. Because of the mix of hosted and customer-owned components, as well as the fact that a majority of endpoints registered to exchange services are managed, we are categorizing exchange services under the managed services segment of this buyer s guide. Criteria for Provider Inclusion Since there are many providers now competing in this space we have narrowed our scope to profile a diverse cross-section of the top providers based on revenues, infrastructure deployment models, and willingness to participate and share information for this study based on available offerings and company performance in the year of Hosted/cloud CSPs must be the party that bills and interfaces with the end-user organization. They may resell or white-label services based on infrastructure owned and hosted by partners. MSPs and CSPs profiled in this report must have generated revenues of at least $ million from hosted/cloud and/or managed services delivered in North America in The scope of this research does NOT include: Revenue from services associated with hardware or software product sales such as installation, warranty, and maintenance. Revenue from planning services such as network readiness assessments, systems integration (e.g., UC/scheduling), or audio-video room design. Service revenue incurred by SaaS-based solutions that are more collaborative in nature (e.g., Cisco WebEx), or geared towards long-distance toll bypass (e.g., Skype and other similar VoIP solutions) for which video conferencing is just an enabler. Revenue associated with transport or network, specifically ISDN/IP network, sale. Revenue from sales or lease of video conferencing equipment and hardware. Note: Our knowledge base extends well beyond the companies and services profiled in this report. End-user organizations are welcome to contact Frost & Sullivan regarding companies and services not included here, as well as offerings made available in