2013 Global Video Conferencing Technology Leadership Award 2013
Technology Leadership Award Video Conferencing Global, 2013 Frost & Sullivan s Global Research Platform Frost & Sullivan is in its 50th year in business with a global research organization of 1,800 analysts and consultants who monitor more than 300 industries and 250,000 companies. The company s research philosophy originates with the CEO s 360-Degree Perspective, which serves as the foundation of its TEAM Research methodology. This unique approach enables us to determine how best-in-class companies worldwide manage growth, innovation and leadership. Based on the findings of this Best Practices research, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present the 2013 Global Technology Leadership Award in video conferencing to Vidyo. Significance of the Technology Leadership Award Key Industry Challenges Addressed by Technology Leadership Excellence Businesses are rapidly adopting visual collaboration technologies today that are enabling them to do more with less and maintain a competitive edge. In a recent Frost & Sullivan survey of C-level executives, video conferencing ranked highest among key enterprise communication applications for future usage. Ninety percent of the respondents indicated that they plan to either maintain or significantly increase the use of video conferencing in their organizations. Video conferencing is helping businesses achieve better results at lower costs through faster decision making, improved quality of interactions, and more cost efficient business collaboration. According to recent Frost & Sullivan research the market for video conferencing systems and services stands at $3.2 billion and is forecast to almost double to $6.3 billion by 2016. This high growth market represents an escalating demand to use video for all aspects of enterprise communications. While the business benefits of video conferencing have been tremendous, the market has been hampered by high priced solutions and performance issues. Due to the high costs associated with the devices and extensive infrastructure requirements, most of video conferencing remains confined to conference rooms. The consumerization of IT and the resulting BYOD trend along with the sweeping adoption of social media networks is leading to increased demand for video everywhere. Video conferencing deployments must meet the criteria of being scalable, flexible, and affordable for thousands of users in an organization. Where traditional video conferencing has failed, newer software-based architectures and technologies like Scalable Video Coding (SVC) will open the gates of adoption. Vidyo has been a leader and innovator in breaking the old paradigm and bringing software-based architecture that is needed to deliver the scale to support hundreds of thousands of personal endpoints. 2012 Frost & Sullivan 1 We Accelerate Growth
Key Benchmarking Criteria for Technology Leadership Award For the Technology Leadership Award, the following criteria were used to benchmark Vidyo s performance against key competitors: Development of New Technologies Leverage of New Technologies R&D Spending as a % of Revenues Brand Perception Customer Value Decision Support Matrix and Measurement Criteria To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Matrix (DSM). The DSM is an analytical tool that compares companies performance relative to each other with an integration of quantitative and qualitative metrics. The DSM features criteria unique to each Award category and ranks importance by assigning weights to each criterion. The relative weighting reflects current market conditions and illustrates the associated importance of each criterion according to Frost & Sullivan. Fundamentally, each DSM is distinct for each market and Award category. The DSM allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze each company's performance on each criterion relative to its top competitors and assign performance ratings on that basis. The DSM follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation; ratings guidelines are shown in Chart 2. Chart 2: Performance-Based Ratings for Decision Support Matrix This exercise encompasses all criteria, leading to a weighted average ranking of each company. Researchers can then easily identify the company with the highest ranking. As a final step, the research team confirms the veracity of the model by ensuring that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies. 2012 Frost & Sullivan 2 We Accelerate Growth
Chart 3: Frost & Sullivan s 10-Step Process for Identifying Award Recipients Best Practice Award Analysis for Vidyo The Decision Support Matrix, shown in Chart 4, illustrates the relative importance of each criterion for the Technology Leadership Award and the ratings for each company under evaluation. To remain unbiased while also protecting the interests of the other organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players as Competitor 1 and Competitor 2. Chart 4: Decision Support Matrix for Technology Leadership Award Measurement of 1 10 (1 = lowest; 10 = highest) Award Criteria Development of New Technologies Leverage of New Technologies Brand Perception Customer Value Weighted Rating Relative Weight (%) 25% 25% 25% 25% 100% Vidyo 9.0 9.5 8.5 8.9 8.9 Vendor 2 8.2 8.4 9 8.5 8.5 Vendor 3 8.3 8.5 9 8.4 8.5 2012 Frost & Sullivan 3 We Accelerate Growth
Criterion 1: Development of New Technologies In a marketplace defined by fast technology developments, Vidyo has been at the forefront of innovation launching products that have positioned the company for growth. The company s flagship offering VidyoRouter leverages the company s Adaptive Video Layering technology which uses H.264 SVC and replaces the video processing intensive MCU of traditional conferencing systems with an intelligent packet routing application. By eliminating the processing from the core of the network, latency is significantly reduced, delivering better end user experiences. The individual optimization capabilities of the VidyoRouter enables Vidyo to connect devices ranging in capability from smart phones and tablets to laptops and desktops and all the way to room systems and immersive telepresence, in the same call with each endpoint performing up to its full capability. Vidyo introduced the VidyoRouter Virtual Edition, initially targeting VMware platforms, with additional virtualization environments to follow. In addition to appealing to enterprises that employ virtualization internally, VidyoRouter Virtual Edition eases deployments on cloud computing infrastructure and makes it easier for cloud vendors to embed in their own services. Moreover, Vidyo s multi-protocol media server VidyoGateway supports interoperability with multiple codec and signaling standards: H.264 AVC, H.264 SVC, H.263, H.323 and SIP. It is going to be available in a virtualized version for VMWare environments in Q1 2013, offering the inherent operational, environmental, and business cost savings to be gained from virtualized video solutions. SVC is increasingly being accepted in the market as a key standard to enable videoconferencing that can dynamically adapt to varying network conditions such as packet loss, fluctuating network bandwidth, and network delay. Vidyo was the innovator in developing an architecture that uses SVC which is now being implemented by other vendors. However, Vidyo is ahead of the market and is shipping 3rd generation SVC-based products that incorporate field experience, customer feedback and intellectual property. Vidyo has also been at the forefront of several other leading technology developments. Vidyo recently announced VidyoWay - a free cloud based connectivity service for anyone using H.323 and SIP-based video conferencing endpoints, Lync clients, and mobile devices to connect with each other and/or with Vidyo endpoints. Scheduled to launch in Q1 2013, the free service is targeted at users in the enterprise videoconferencing market which is currently dominated by traditional MCU and gateway solutions and services. Vidyo has been following the huge market demand for low priced devices and has announced the industry s first $750 Executive Desktop System. With the new Executive Desktop system Vidyo achieves a price/performance breakthrough that delivers up to 1080p30 encode and 1440p60 decode at a fraction of the traditional executive desktop systems cost. Vidyo s Executive Desktop offers a floating concurrent-use license that follows the user instead of being attached to a specific device. 2012 Frost & Sullivan 4 We Accelerate Growth
Lastly, Vidyo has also been leading the market for extending the videoconferencing experience to mobile devices. It offers VidyoMobile enabling enterprise mobile users on ios or Android-based smart phones or tablets to join multiparty videoconferences with desktops and HD room and telepresence system participants. Criterion 2: Leverage of New Technologies A further advantage Vidyo has when compared to traditional hardware based video conferencing solutions is that its flexible software-based platform integrates easily with other communication and productivity tools via a full suite of APIs. The ability for customers to embed Vidyo into their own web portals and service environments via Vidyo s APIs has enabled innovative new solutions and service offerings from a variety of OEM partners including Google+ Hangouts, Ricoh and Philips who have all brought solutions to market based upon Vidyo. In addition, several major partnerships may foreshadow the technology becoming available as part of the infrastructure including Juniper, VMware and Qualcomm. More recently Vidyo announced that it is adding Nintendo Wii U consoles to the pool of Vidyo enabled systems. The Wii integration takes Vidyo s technology into the midst of a huge mass market and will build critical mass around Vidyo s software platform. Vidyo s partnership with Nintendo is a validation of the power of its architecture and significantly extends its reach in the consumer market. Criterion 3: Brand Perception In a market that has traditionally been dominated by two vendors Cisco and Polycom - Vidyo has successfully created a strong brand name and identity in a matter of few years. Vidyo has consistently built a buzz in the market for SVC and its benefits, aggressively taking its message against hardware-based solutions. Vidyo continues to gain market momentum. Although not publicly reported, it is believed that Vidyo s videoconferencing endpoint revenue and unit shipments have seen significant growth in the last few years. While it is growing from a smaller revenue base compared to competition, it is gaining pace and grew revenue by 82 percent in 2011. Vidyo s 2011 growth reflects its success in North America and Asia-Pacific regions, which increased by 115 percent each. Vidyo is currently in an expansion mode. In Q1 2012 when most vendors reported a Y/Y revenue decline Vidyo grew revenues by 90% for its branded products. With VidyoWay and several other offerings slated to be released in Q1 2013, it is expected that Vidyo s adoption will escalate even further making it a key provider in this space. Criterion 4: Customer Value Video conferencing is undergoing a big shift today. There is an ongoing disruption resulting from the growing need for lower-priced endpoints and software-based solutions. The need 2012 Frost & Sullivan 5 We Accelerate Growth
for infrastructure products that can support broader deployments, particularly desktop and mobile endpoints, combined with the growing demand for cloud-based video services points at the pertinent need for new and flexible architectures. Vidyo s solutions have a good fit with the emerging trends and offer customers a new and more scalable approach to video conferencing, eliminating the traditional hurdles to adoption including high fixed costs for multipoint infrastructure, QoS-enhanced networks and IT personnel. The VidyoRouter is an apt fit for global enterprises, since it saves on hardware costs that are normally incurred over geographically dispersed deployments and has a significantly slimmer footprint adding to the operating savings afforded by the lower cost commodity networks. And the new VidyoWay service will provide a free and flexible solution for third party endpoints to interact with each other and interoperate with Vidyo deployments. These factors make Vidyo an affordable and scalable solution for virtually any sized enterprise. Conclusion Vidyo s market leading innovations continue to demonstrate its technology lead and commitment to make video conferencing a ubiquitous technology. Vidyo is a deserving recipient of the 2013 Frost & Sullivan Technology Leadership award in the videoconferencing market. About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com. 2012 Frost & Sullivan 6 We Accelerate Growth