Cloud market to reach heights of $650 million by 2020, as businesses look to the skies

Australian businesses will help grow Australia’s cloud communications market to reach $650 million by 2020, according to research released yesterday by technology analyst firm Telsyte.

The Australian Enterprise Communications Market Study 2015 found more Australian businesses are adopting modern communications options like cloud communications, forecasting the industry will exceed 30% penetration in the next five years.

The popularity will be driven by more options from traditional telco and non-telco service providers, according to the research.

Telsyte also looked at the rise in popularity of other innovative communication offerings, such a softphones; a software program for making telephone calls over the internet.

The study found most organisations (88%) now have staff who use a softphone at least once a week, with Skype the most popular application.

A further 40% of organisations are looking at docking solutions to enable mobile devices to act as a desk phone replacement while in the office.

Telsyte senior analyst Rodney Gedda said in a statement organisations need to find the best ways to integrate services for holistic enterprise communications.

Gedda said the solutions would increasingly involve mobile devices and wearables.

“Instant messaging, presence and email integration are the most deployed UC [Unified Communication] applications, but web collaboration and BYOD [Bring Your Own Device] integration are becoming more important as organisations look to modernise their business and support next generation employees,” Gedda said.