Asean Unified Communication-As-A-Service Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

Asean Unified Communication-As-A-Service Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

The ASEAN Unified Communication-as-a-Service Market is expected to register a CAGR of 12.27% over the forecast period from 2021 to 2026. Since its launch, unified Communications (UC) has emerged as a cost-effective solution for organizations across various organizations. However, the cloud delivery of the unified communications provided by companies, like Mitel Networks Corporation, shapes the method organizations manage the communication networks. The rising need for an easily maintained network system that can enable effective communications across multiple organizations is evident, considering the old/obsolete contact centers present in the region.

• The usage of cost-effective cloud-based solutions has seen increased adoption from organizations, which are often categorized to have minimum IT budgets. Concerning consumers, mobile-first solutions where the communication is enabled through chat, audio, and video call through the same device can address all the customer queries. These solutions are, therefore, aimed at enhancing customer service assistance, merchandise inquiries, and self-service. Employees also benefit from deploying virtual training and merchandise management tools.
• Moreover, with the changing trends, the modern working of an enterprise transforms from a single point of interaction to omnichannel interactions(such as web or social media). The increasing consumer demand, therefore, creates the need for enhanced shopping experience across all channels. Unified communication technology helps organizations bring their teams together to serve customers and run the business better. The ease in the adoption of cloud-based technologies has further boosted the adoption of video conferencing among companies, driving the usage of cloud services for various business needs.
• In January 2019, Mitel announced multiple updates to it's unified communications solutions for offering enterprises more advanced collaboration, voice and contact center features to drive productivity and deliver better customer experiences. Mitel's MiVoice, MiCollab, and MiContact Center solutions bring better experience with flexible deployment choices, especially for enterprises with advanced contact center operations, omnichannel interactions, or unique integration requirements. It even includes 4th-generation SIP-DECT technology that brings the latest portfolio of base stations and feature upgradations to the full line of Mitel cordless SIP and IP devices, which solves companies' vertical-specific mobile communications requirements.
• Further, in January 2020, Avaya launched its private cloud solution for ASEAN enterprises. More specifically, its ReadyNow product portfolio engages in providing organizations access to the Avaya Unified Communications and Contact Centre portfolio in a private, secure cloud environment hosted in Singapore. Also, the company expects that Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia are leading destinations for its ReadyNow adoption, as allied organizations are tormented by significant capital investments and the extensive tender processes. Thus, be resorting to an OPEX based offering with not only save upfront costs but allow to pay as per the usage, which reflects catering to optimized demand.
• With the outbreak of COVID-19, businesses in the ASEAN region are increasing their investment in unified communications (UC) and collaboration tools, including video conferencing for remote working. Also, vendors such as Cisco has announced offering of its Webex 90-day license free of cost against the personal account in Singapore. As per Telstra's 2019 survey, the top business priorities for SEA based companies have been accounting 77% towards improving ICT and security resilience for business continuity. And, Vonage, a cloud-based communications platform provider, announced being benefited from Singapore's e-commerce wave as well.

• The increasing adoption of the BYOD trend and other mobility solutions is expected to adopt UCaaS solutions further. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is emerging as a significant trend in this era of flexibility and network accessibility for employees working in the region for various enterprises, making the workplace more productive. According to Cisco, organizations with a BYOD policy in place results in cost-saving of average USD 350 per year, per employee. Moreover, reactive programs can significantly boost these savings as high as USD 1,300 per year, per employee. For Small to Medium Businesses (SMBs), the cost savings can add up fast and enable these to protect their bottom line better at the same time could improve employee productivity.
• In September 2019, VMware, Inc. announced that its Workspace ONE solution had been selected by Singapore Airlines to provide better employee digital experiences across several apps and devices. With a focus on using Singapore Airlines mobile-friendly Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy, VMware Workspace ONE platform will engage in streamlining the delivery of multiple mobile applications across more than 14,000 employee-owned well as more than 6,000 company-issued devices. The VMware Workspace ONE platform facilitates easy access to SaaS productivity applications and Singapore Airlines mobile and intranet web applications on BYOD mobile devices all the time.
• In March 2020, Cognizant announced an additional payment of 25% of the base pay for April for employees up to associate level in the Philippines in the wake of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Cognizant has granted work from home for almost all of its teams to ensure employee safety and health, and to maintain continuity of service for their clients while safeguarding their data and protecting access to their systems. The work from home measures includes encrypting desktops and provisioning new laptops and moving them to associate homes, enabling the use of BYOD and extra bandwidth connectivity and air cards.
• Such BYOD instances stated above are expected to impact the adoption of Unifies Communication (UC) in the region positively. By using BYOD policies that are supported with Mobile UC integration, all of these top applications are combined into a seamless user experience that offers full support for mobile workers via email, business phone, video conferencing, instant messaging, and more. Unified Communications systems provide the tools mobile workers need to enhance productivity and improve communications. However, BYOD can boost both employee gratification and the number of security risks a company faces. This need to secure access on remote networks is an increasingly important issue, as access to Unified Communication applications can occur on any device.

• Unified Communications (UC), in Singapore, has been offering a cost-effective solution for verticals, such as BFSI, healthcare, and retail, to name a few. However, the cloud delivery of unified communications has been regarded as a prime driver for the same. Therefore, as per Nutanix’s early 2019 Enterprise Cloud Index Survey, Singapore based medium to large organizations intend to cut traditional infrastructure adoption by 60%, that is, to account for 17% over the next 12-24 months. And similarly, the hybrid cloud adoption has been portrayed to increase from 18 percent to 46% over the same period.
• Entrepreneurs in Singapore, many of which belong to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) category, reflect that 65% of SMEs have already adopted digital solutions, and 38% are on the lines of continuing to digitize more business processes in 2020. This portrays a significant demand potential been driven from the country. The majority of the players operating in Singapore have been observed to have included a separate, mission-critical UCaaS offering for the contact center. For instance, 8x8 offers unified contact center communication offerings featuring omnichannel routing via digital channels, IVR, ACD, etc.
• Rising touch-points of enterprises in terms of going digital and adopting a multi-channel communication approach has led Singapore’s adoption of Unified Communications to grow. For instance, Pan Pacific Hotels Group was tormented with handling corporate devices of their employees. The costs associated with costly phone contracts and handsets were eliminated once they shifted to UCaaS. Currently, with employees using their personal devices (BYOD) to make and respond to calls as they move around the workplace, the hotelier seemed to have improved collaboration and productivity.
• Moreover, in July 2019, 8x8, Inc. entered the Asian market, specifically Singapore, through the acquisition of Wavecell Pte. Ltd. 8x8 expanded its API offerings, making it the only cloud provider able to offer pre-packaged contact center, communications, and video solutions as well as open APIs to embed communications. Also, in the country, E-commerce firm Lazada announced an increasing demand post in February 2020, a brief period of panic-buying amidst the coronavirus outbreak. The UCaaS to be used by e-commerce players would engage consumers through text messaging, voice, and video, as more people shop online amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The ASEAN Unified Communication-as-a-Service Market is consolidated as few players such as Mitel Networks Corporation, Ring Central Inc., and Cisco Systems Inc. hold a significant share. These companies can gain a competitive advantage over the other players due to their ability to bring about innovations by investing heavily in research and developments. The companies entering into strategic partnerships and their mergers and acquisitions have allowed them to occupy a substantial share in the market.

• July 2020 - Atos SE and RingCentral, Inc. expanded their strategic partnership by launching a co-branded UCaaS solution named Unify Office (UO) by RingCentral. The expanded partnership will include Unify Office as the exclusive UCaaS offering for the 40 million users installed base of the Atos Unify product family.
• April 2020 - NTT expanded Cisco Webex Calling capabilities to Singapore soon after launching its Cloud Communications division and Applicable, a provider of cloud unified communications and enterprise voice services. Cisco Webex Calling is a cloud-based communications technological solution that engages in upgrading enterprises existing Private Branch Exchange (PBX) infrastructure.

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