T3i Group recently conducted a survey that revealed that although U.S. businesses employ a “best-of-breed” strategy to choose individual collaboration apps rather than deploying products from a single vendor, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have predominantly accepted Microsoft (News - Alert) as their primary vendor.
The company has published the survey results in the new InfoTrack for Unified Communications (News - Alert) (IUC) research reports: Analysis of Enterprises’ Unified Communications Migration Strategies and Analysis of SMBs’ Unified Communications Migration Strategies.
As part of the survey, more than 250 participants were asked about collaboration applications including Web conferencing, video conferencing, unified communications client apps and social software. And Microsoft came on top of the list as the primary vendor followed by Cisco (News - Alert). The company emerged as the only vendor used by some respondents for all four collaboration applications.
The report stated that while SMBs also prefer Microsoft for Web conferencing, Cisco is preferred for desktop video conferencing, and among enterprises, for Web conferencing. IBM (News - Alert) also features consistently among one of the top four vendors.
“U.S. firms most often select companies known for their technology or, in the case of social software, their reputation in the consumer market,” said Susan Hobart, co-author of the study.
Traditional telecommunications vendors aren't perceived as leaders in this space, and to stay in the game, they will likely need to partner with the more dominant collaboration providers.”
Microsoft claimed that its Communication and Collaboration solutions can help one enhance productivity and mobility, reduce costs and complexity, improve teamwork and collaboration and simplify IT security and reliability. The company’s business class productivity and communications software and services are delivered via subscription services and hosted by Microsoft and also supported by certified Microsoft hosting partners.
T3i Group added that the SMB report also includes a chapter on non-U.S. firms’ usage of these collaboration technologies.
Edited by Braden Becker