Managed and hosted IP telephony services in the US

Publication Date	October 2007
Publisher	Ovum
Product Type	Report
Pages	17
ISBN Number	not applicable
Product Code	OVM00385

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Summary

US businesses now have a wide range of options when it comes to managed and hosted IP telephony services. Smaller specialist providers and large service providers alike are offering managed and hosted services based on either carrier or enterprise grade platforms, and businesses have a variety of models to choose from.

The entry of larger service providers into the IP centrex space has lent credibility to hosted services and given a boost to the smaller service providers who were the first to enter the market. Those smaller service providers still own the bulk of the lower end of the market, while larger providers have continued to target mostly larger businesses with their managed and hosted offerings.

This report covers three main services which fall under the general heading of managed and hosted IP telephony:

IP centrex - a network-based, carrier-grade, multi-tenant platform of feature servers and softswitches providing a hosted service to enterprise customers
Hosted IP PBX - a hosted service, using one or more enterprise-grade IP PBXs per customer hosted in a carrier's network or data centre
Managed IP PBX - a managed service using premise-based IP PBXs, with the service provider responsible for some or all management tasks associated with the equipment.

Content

Key messages
Introduction
A varied set of portfolios
Variety of management models
IP centrex simple today but likely to evolve
Management on a spectrum for managed IP PBX
Pricing models
Features and packages
Productisation versus customisation
Geographic coverage
Target markets
SMEs and distributed businesses still the 'sweet spot' for IP centrex
All sizes, with emphasis on large, for managed services
Migration strategies
Differentiation
Pricing and simplicity for SMEs
Reliability, integration, customisation for larger customers
Unified communications
Future trends
Prospects for managed and hosted services
Table of figures
- Figure 1 Hosted and managed IP telephony services
- Figure 2 Managed and hosted IPT portfolios
- Figure 3 Management options with managed IP PBX services
- Figure 4 Typical charging structures
- Figure 5 Application server vendors
- Figure 6 Migration strategies
- Figure 7 Managed and hosted IPT extension forecasts (000s)
- Figure 8 Managed and hosted IPT revenue forecasts ($ million)