A recent T3iGroup survey suggests interest in Microsoft Lync Enterprise Voice is increasing across the enterprise, confirming recent claims from the analysts at Gartner.
The T3iGroup survey of 150 enterprise business managers across medium and large enterprises revealed increasing interest in Lync, which is being tested by 72% of those surveyed, up from 40% (medium enterprise) and 43% (large enterprise) last year.
“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,” said T3iGroup.
Since introduction in 2013, Lync’s Enterprise Voice component is now being tested by 90% of those trialing its Microsoft’s UC solution – and those enterprises who are testing it seem pleasantly surprised. The T3iGroup survey concluded that:
- 43% of large enterprises thought Microsoft’s solution was better than “most traditional voice system manufacturers” before trials began. But this climbed to 57% after trials.
- 100% of medium and 98% of large enterprises said Enterprise Voice performance met or exceeded expectations.
For Microsoft, positive reaction to Enterprise Voice as part of its Lync solution has to be a good thing. After all, Nemertes claims nearly 70% of all spending IT leaders classify as "Unified Communications" goes on telephony (49%) and audio conferencing (21%) platforms.
The rest of what they spend (30%) is split between Web and video conferencing (12% each), instant messaging (3%) and social platforms (3%).
For firms in transition from first-generation IP-PBXs or softswitches, Microsoft appears keen to make integration a little easier. Lync Mobile's product manager, Barak Manor, says: “Microsoft understands people use a variety of devices, and we want to open the door for everyone to enjoy a great communications experience - no matter where you are or what device you're using,” he said.
Microsoft’s work on establishing its Lync UC platform is drawing dividends. Gartner in August claimed Microsoft became the leading UC firm in 2014, while previous (2013) market leader, Cisco, took second place.
“Microsoft’s Lync solution continued to experience strong adoption, and the telephony and video capabilities improved year over year. Importantly, the Lync partner network matured, and Microsoft’s ability to integrate other enterprise software investments in collaboration and social networks improved its longer-term competitive potential,” said Gartner.
Find our more about Microsoft Lync: http://www.orange-business.
After a Masters in Computer Science, I decided that I preferred writing about IT rather than programming. My 20-year writing career has taken me to Hong Kong and London where I've edited and written for IT, business and electronics publications. In 2002 I co-founded Futurity Media with Stewart Baines where I continue to write about a range of topics such as unified communications, cloud computing and enterprise applications.