Latin America is emerging as the high-potential market for conferencing services, says a new research from Frost & Sullivan.
The market earned revenues of $71.8 million in 2013 and projects this to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9 percent in the next seven years, the research said.
Hosted conferencing is gaining traction in Latin America, a region otherwise dominated by on-premises solutions. The market is driven by growing awareness on the benefits of advanced collaboration tools, including cost reduction and productivity enhancements.
In addition to these, improved economic conditions in Mexico, Colombia and Peru are attracting foreign capital investment to Latin America.
“As global companies expand into Latin America and local firms widen their presence, both find themselves in need of cost-effective yet high-impact collaboration tools,” said Frost & Sullivan Information and Communication Technologies Industry manager Alaa Saayed.
However, the enduring popularity of on-premises communication and collaboration solutions and the emergence of all-in-one unified communication systems are limiting the scope for hosted conferencing services in Latin America.
The more commonly deployed audio conferencing bridges and video conferencing infrastructure continue to eat into the share of conferencing service vendors, the research said.
Another challenge to market development is the lack of significant interest from some regional carriers and service providers to resell or offer their own enterprise conferencing services. While many regional carriers have launched basic audio conferencing services, few deliver a comprehensive stack of audio, web and video hosted conferencing services.
According to Frost, in order to penetrate the market, conferencing service vendors must adapt their products and market strategies to address specific regional and cultural needs. “With customers expecting more for less, vendors need to furnish innovative, bundled solutions at compelling prices.”
Establishing strategic partnerships with regional carriers, providing mobility as part of the solution, and enabling integration with on-premises equipment will also be crucial for conferencing service providers to strengthen their base in the Latin American market.
