Latin American Web Conferencing Services Market

Benefits of Cost Reduction and Improved Productivity Fuel Growth in the Web Conferencing Services Market in Latin America

Real-time collaboration is gaining rapid recognition as an enhancer of business performance. Organizations are investing in this technology and encouraging the adoption of real-time collaboration tools with web conferencing encompassing an essential part of it owing to benefits that include reduced cost and optimized productivity. Opportunities for the web conferencing market have been proliferating with the mushrooming of regional and global businesses, which favors remote interaction as well as the creation of virtual teams. The requirement for high-impact collaboration tools is on the rise. Vendor efforts to integrate web conferencing capabilities into specific business applications such as decision support systems, financial applications, system analysis and program development and enterprise resource planning (CRM/ERP) software, and contact centers has proved the value of web conferencing and ROI of web conferencing. Traditionally, audio conferencing solutions comprised the preferred collaboration method in Latin America. The friendliness of the service and affordable connection rates present a solution that also has a small learning curve for participants. However, the integration of web collaboration with audio conferencing and desktop video is increasing and many vendors already have an integrated product or service suite that incorporates all these mediums through the use of Internet protocol (IP), notes the analyst of this research service. However, the integration and its subsequent uptake is expected to be slower than in North America or Europe.

Low Awareness of Web Conferencing in Mainstream Markets Restrains Wider Adoption

The popularity of audio conferencing as an inexpensive solution to communication suggests that customers in Latin America perceive web conferencing as a relatively expensive add-on, says the analyst. Sustained marketing and awareness programs along with aggressive pricing, attractive schemes over the long term, and bundled audio and web packages should help in combating this challenge. Continuously evolving product lines, changing vendor strategies, and the growing number of web conferencing offerings with price disparity also cause confusion in the minds of customers, thus lengthening sales cycles and slowing implementation of these services. With technology budgets shrinking, carriers have started offering bundled voice and data packages at attractive prices to enhance the appeal of these services. Although the general climate in Latin America displays a sense of caution with regard to technology investments, web conferencing vendors can leverage the current economic situation, to highlight the value add of their solutions and gain awareness. Reduced travel and increased interest in low-cost collaborative tools is expected during 2009, opening up possibilities for the deeper penetration of web conferencing services in the region.

Market Sectors

Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the following market sectors in this research:

By Application Type:

• Desktop sharing (screen sharing)
• Application sharing
• Web co-browsing
• File transfer
• Chat (instant messaging)
• White boarding and annotation
• Polls and surveys
• Archiving and broadcasting

By Geographic Region:

• Brazil
• Mexico
• Southern Cone (including Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile)
• Andean countries (including Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador)
• Central America and Caribbean CACAR (including El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Bahamas, and Barbados)