Despite the Great Recession Unified Message Grew in 2009

Unified messaging had a boon in 2009, with 29 percent year-over-year growth, according to a new analysis from Frost and Sullivan.

The market earned revenues of $953.7 million and shipped 9.99 million seats during the year.

'The growing number of telecommuters and increasing mobility of the enterprise workforce drive demand for next-generation messaging solutions,' says Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) Research Analyst Alaa Saayed. 'As enterprises seek new ways to enable their workforce to be more productive and efficient while performing multiple tasks (either at their desks or on the go), anywhere and anytime access to non-real-time messaging becomes crucial.'

The Frost & Sullivan report was done in conjunction with World Enterprise Voice and Unified Messaging Platform Markets is part of the Enterprise Communications (News - Alert) Growth Partnership Services program, which also includes research in the following markets: World Enterprise IP Telephony Endpoint Markets, World Enterprise Telephony Platform Markets, and World Enterprise Media Gateway (News - Alert) Markets.

UM sales growth is contributed  to the success of bundling programs, free 'try and buy' UM seats in different telephony systems, the smaller mark-up of additional UM seats, the progress of new market entrants such as Microsoft (News - Alert) and, last but not least, the growing recognition of the benefits of unified messaging.

In 2009, messaging vendors saw the penetration of their UM-ready seats increase to almost 50 to 60 percent of their total messaging seats.

However, the entry of more market participants with lower license fees, increased bundling, and giving away of free messaging licenses are reducing revenues and margins.