This IDC study delivers an analysis of the results of IDC's unified communications and collaboration (UCC) research that surveyed 100 Australian enterprises about their views, plans, and vendor selection around UC. The results here look broadly at the midmarket businesses. About 96% of the respondents reported having fewer than 500 employees and 90% report fewer than 250 employees. The views of IT business leaders were compared with responses from 12 other Asia/Pacific countries across the region as well as across five vertical markets to draw out any differences in usage preferences. The total sample size across the region was 1,153.

"This survey reveals a number of interesting trends for Australia and region at large. First, UC is now being seen as a software-led solution over all competing hardware-based alternatives," says Dustin Kehoe, Associate Research Director, IDC Australia/New Zealand. "Whilst UC is widely adopted now and has extended to the midmarkets, excitement for videoconferencing is lacklustre. High costs and poor interoperability are major barriers. Over 80% of respondents plan to invest in cloud solutions and this can potentially pull through other slower growth areas such as videoconferencing."