VoIP is now accepted by businesses as the way forward for voice infrastructure; whenever a new system is required, both in-house and hosted VoIP solutions will be considered. While a number of providers, notably BT, have been offering outsourced VoIP services for some time, the market is still getting established and there are a wide variety of providers and an even wider variety of types of offering. Customers range from large multinationals to the smallest start-up. Marketing strategies vary from those that boast the exciting new features of unified communications to those that emphasise a simple message about flexible phone systems.

The report looks at outsourced VoIP systems for medium and large businesses, the problems the systems aim to solve and how the offerings available succeed in providing solutions. It identifies nine success factors for service providers entering this market. The report also provides forecasts for spend on VoIP voice calls and connection, equipment and management services for France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Western Europe from 2007 to 2012.

Success Factors for Hosted and Managed VoIP in Europe answers your key questions:

- What do businesses want from VoIP?
- What drives businesses to consider hosted or managed VoIP services?
- What types of problem can VoIP help businesses to solve?
- How are service providers offering VoIP solutions?
- How big is the market for hosted VoIP?
- Which customers want CPE-based services?
- What are the characteristics of a successful outsourced VoIP service?
- Will shared-platform IP Centrex or hosted iPBXs be the preferred model?
- Which types of business will prefer which solution?
- What is the best route to market - a distributed channel strategy or a centralised call-centre approach?
- Is it essential to include the IP access with the VoIP service?

Who should read this report

- Fixed operators: that want to maintain their Centrex and PBX business as users move to VoIP.
- Non-facilities based service providers: that are offering hosted VoIP services directly to end users or to telecom service providers.
- Systems integrators: that are considering offering VoIP solutions as part of their corporate IT package.
- Vendors: that want to understand what will drive take-up of their VoIP products and which technologies are most likely to be deployed.
- Mobile operators: that want to maximise their share of the enterprise voice market and be prepared to counter encroachment by fixed operators offering FMC voice solutions.
- End users (corporate telecoms managers): telecoms managers and CIOs who want a concise overview of what hosted and managed VoIP technologies can offer them.
- Bankers: that want to understand the potential market for outsourced VoIP solutions and which are the most promising areas.

About the authors

Margaret Hopkins (Analysys Associate) is Principal Analyst with Exegesys. She started her career in the Post Office Telecommunications Long Range Planning Department. During her 18 years working with Analysys she has been lead author on many reports, including Beyond Triple Play: forecasts for broadband value-added services, Scenarios for Enterprise Mobile Data Services 2006-11, VoIP versus Mobile: forecasts for the future of enterprise voice, The Business Case for Carrier Migration to VoIP, The Business Case for Broadband Entertainment, Delivering the Broadband Home, New Fixed and Mobile Services and Devices: forecasts 2003-2008, Broadband Value-Added Services for SMEs: market strategy and forecasts 2003-2008, Next-Generation Networks: integrated IP architectures and IP Voice Services: the return on investment for European service providers. She holds a degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and a Master's in Telecommunications and Information Systems from the University of Essex.