Small Business Segment Presents a Significant Market Opportunity for P2P Telephony Solutions

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Although small businesses constitute for almost 89 percent of North American firms, they remain a largely underserved market segment. Peer-to-peer (P2P) telephony vendors looking to maximize revenues are now targeting this segment by enabling them to cut back on the costs and complexities involved in deploying and maintaining IP PBX systems.

“Small businesses ideally prefer a simple, scalable, and cost-effective communication solution that can also enhance their productivity,” observes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Kumar Alagappan. “In fact, the plug-and- play P2P telephony solution effectively addresses the needs of small business customers as it eliminates the need for a call server, while providing the productivity benefits of IP telephony.”

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview of the latest analysis of the North American Enterprise P2P Telephony Solutions, then send an e-mail to Mireya Castilla, Corporate Communications, at mireya.castilla@frost.com with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, e-mail address, city, state, and country. We will send you the overview by e-mail upon receipt of the above information.

In addition to guaranteeing up to 80 percent cost savings, P2P telephony allows small businesses without a dedicated IT staff to avoid the complexities of setting up and maintaining call servers and more importantly, realize savings on the purchase of hardware equipment.

However, vendors do face a variety of challenges, since the P2P telephony is still in the initial stages of its life cycle. A majority of the P2P solutions available in the market today do not conform to QoS standards. Strong marketing efforts and partnerships are likely to take top priority among vendors not only while entering the market, but also while trying to overcome negative perceptions surrounding the reliability and security of the technology.

A valuable strategy would be to diversify the distribution channel by offering products through retail stores and forge partnerships with service providers, desk phone manufacturers, as well as software application developers to increase the visibility of products.

P2P telephony vendors would also have to contend with competing managed IP telephony services that have a strong presence in the small business segment.

“Hosted IP telephony has grown at a rapid pace as it offers cost savings as well as productivity-enhancing capabilities to small businesses at a monthly fee,” explains Alagappan. “P2P telephony vendors by partnering with hosted IP telephony service providers can leverage their small business client base and reach the mass market.”

North American Enterprise P2P Telephony Solutions is part of the Enterprise Communications subscription service, which also includes research in the following markets: North American Hosted IP Telephony and VoIP Access Service Markets, North American Enterprise VoWLAN Markets, and North American Enterprise IP Telephony End Point Market. The study provides an overview of the market size, a discussion of drivers and restraints, as well as an in- depth analysis of market share. Analyst interviews are available to the press.

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company’s industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.frost.com/ .

             North American Enterprise P2P Telephony Solutions                                  F808-62     Contact:    Mireya Castilla    Corporate Communications – North America    P: 210.247.3830    F: 210.348.1003    E: mireya.castilla@frost.com     Srividhya Parthasarathy    Corporate Communications – Europe    P: + 91 44 42044668    E: sparthasarathy@frost.com     Sarah Lourdes    Corporate Communications – Asia Pacific    P: +603 6204 5878    F: +603 6201 7402    E: sarah.lourdes@frost.com     Sharmin Jassal    Corporate Communications – Australia    P: +61 2 8247 8900    F: +61 2 9252 8066    E: sharmin.jassal@frost.com     http://www.frost.com/   

Keywords for this press release: Peer-to-peer telephony, enterprise P2P telephony, North America, IP PBX system, small business, plug-and-play P2P telephony, service providers, desk phone manufacturers, software application developers, hosted IP telephony, research, information, market, trends, technology, service, forecast, market share

Frost & Sullivan

CONTACT: Mireya Castilla, Corporate Communications – North America,+1-210-247-3830, or fax, +1-210-348-1003, mireya.castilla@frost.com , orSrividhya Parthasarathy, Corporate Communications – Europe, +91-44-42044668,or sparthasarathy@frost.com , or Sarah Lourdes, Corporate Communications -Asia Pacific, +603-6204-5878, or fax, +603-6201-7402, orsarah.lourdes@frost.com , or Sharmin Jassal, Corporate Communications -Australia, +61-2-8247-8900, or fax, +61-2-9252-8066, orsharmin.jassal@frost.com , all of Frost & Sullivan

Web site: http://www.frost.com/