U.S. SMB Spending on UC up 16% Annually Through 2015

U.S. small and mid-sized business spending on unified communication will grow at a 16-percent compound annual growth rate through 2015, from its current total of about $1.8 billion, according to AMI-Partners. At those rates, U.S. small and medium businesses will be spending about $3 billion on UC in 2015. SMB UC spendiing up by 16% annually through 2015?

More than one-third of small businesses (firms with less than 100 employees) and nearly three quarters of medium-sized companies (firms with 100–999 employees) currently own at least one unified communications component technology, according to IDC.

More than 30 percent of small firms and 55 percent of mid-size firms cite plans to add at least one UC component in the next 12 months, IDC said. VoIP technology has established a solid foothold in the medium-sized business segment, and more than 30 percent of firms with 100 to 999 employees use it. Also, approximately 45 percent of medium-sized businesses currently use some type of conferencing technology.

But what does that mean? At one level, it might mean that there is some use of one UC tool, but not completely unified communications. It might mean Skype gets used. It might also mean that the entire communications platform is completely unified in terms of messaging functions, call delivery or device support. UC growth rates