IP Telephony Adoption Does Not Accelerate PBX Refresh Cycle

One key question many have had over the last decade is what the unified communications adoption rate would look like, in an era where many solutions could be adopted as adjuncts to existing business communication systems, where hosted alternatives have made advanced features available to smaller entities, and where the new UC features were marketed as a major advance over legacy phone systems.

There is some evidence that, in fact, UC is being adopted at about the same rate enterprises typically upgrade or replace their phone systems.

"So far, the move to IP Telephony has not accelerated the replacement cycle of PBXs, which seems to remain at the historical 10-year average," says Marty Parker, UniComm Consulting principal. "So, on average, an enterprise user may wait five years for the upgrade of the PBX they are using to a version that will support the UC features."

You can take that as good news, or bad news. The good news might be that there is steady demand for UC solutions. The bad news is that UC does not seem to have changed the traditional enterprise replacement cycle for their business phone systems.

In some ways, IP telephony and UC seem to be viewed as the next generation of phone systems, but possibly not something revolutionary, which would then have resulted in a discontinuous rate of adoption.

Does Bundled Pricing Slow or Accelerate UC? - Unified Communications Strategies