INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Software for Business
Microsoft to compete
head-to-head with
traditional UC&C
vendors in EMEA
According to a recent study by International Data Corporation (IDC), Microsoft has
tripled its market share between 1Q 2011 and 2Q 2015 in the Europe, Middle East,
and Africa (EMEA) IP PBX and unified communications (UC) platform market
and become a head-to-head competitor to the vendors that have traditionally
dominated this market. “This is a result of a strategy tuned to the transformations
underway in the unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) market. All
other vendors and service providers should regard Microsoft’s rise as a call to
action,” says Program Manager Michael Vorisek, IDC CEMA.
F
or many years, the EMEA IP
PBX and UC platform market
had been dominated by five
companies: Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise,
Avaya, Cisco, Aastra (now part of
Mitel), and Unify (formerly Siemens
Enterprise Communications). These
players’ market shares used to vary
between 10% and 20%, with no other
company capturing a comparable slice
of the pie. IDC’s