VoIP Industry Newsletter: Volume 1: Issue 1

Oct 2008

The State of the VoIP Managed Services Market
By Charles Weaver, President
www.mspalliance.com
MSPAlliance


For over 10 years now managed services has been a rapidly growing sector of the Information Technology market. While the early years of this industry were primarily dominated by remote monitoring and management services, Voice-over-IP has always been a sector that has largely been ignored. This is not to say that VoIP technology was not being sold. Rather, that the tools necessary to effectively manage and monitor the VoIP experience for businesses did not exist. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) were relegated to advising and selling VoIP equipment without the capabilities to offer very robust quality of service monitoring or guarantees.

Today, technology has finally caught up and the VoIP market is flourishing, not just for product vendors, but for MSPs who are seeking to provider higher levels of VoIP service to their clients. Tools and services like hosted PBX, centralized monitoring of VoIP systems, remote management of VoIP products, and other innovative technologies are not only making it easier for MSPs to manage these systems but they are also encouraging small and medium sized businesses to adopt VoIP technologies.

The increasing prevalence of remote and mobile workforces is also having a tremendous impact on corporate communications strategies. As the number of remote workers increases so does the necessity to maintain heterogeneous communications systems. Traditional voice technologies have been largely inadequate to meet this challenge. Exciting advancements in IP technologies have made enterprise VoIP systems not only accessible to the small and medium sized business market (SMB) but easy to manage as well. These VoIP systems are providing SMBs with professional and solid communications platforms that can be effectively managed by MSPs who specialize in this area.

Throughout the next few years, it is highly plausible, if not probable, that the VoIP market will greatly increase throughout the modernized world. Those geographic regions that possess the minimal infrastructure requirements will likely see rapid adoption of VoIP.

Correspondingly, MSPs will also emerge in those same markets to manage and ensure quality of service for their clients.

While it is safe to say that VoIP has taken its time to mature as a sector of the managed services industry, the next several years will likely experience large growth, producing a beneficial effect for both businesses and MSPs.

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