ABI Research has released a new forecast identifying the continued double digit growth of the VoIP services market. They have broken down the market into SIP Trunking, virtual/hosted IP PBX, managed services and VoIP integrated access. Their forecast is for this market to double over the next five years and exceed $20 billion in sales by 2015.

I agree. Not perhaps with the specific numbers but with the trend. It is clear from our sales activity that sales of SIP Trunks to SMBs continue at a very steady pace. However, the interest by larger companies has grown substantially and their decision timeframes have shortened as well. Moreover, GO!VBX, the new Broadvox virtual IP PBX solution, has generated more interest from medium to enterprise customers than expected. In fact, we have needed to increase the potential size of a hosted customer from topping out at 250 to over two thousand extensions or seats.

ABI Research forecasts suggest a 13% CAGR in terms of revenues and 19.6% CAGR in terms of lines between 2010 and 2015. I hope that is the case because it would also mean that our OEM partners that depend upon selling equipment would also see much needed growth. Most of our OEM partners have experienced the decrease in capital expenditures by enterprise customers to conserve cash or reduce costs. Acquiring SIP Trunks using a hybrid TDM/IP PBX or a virtual IP PBX support this current business strategy and is unlikely to change as the economy improves. SIP Trunking is generally viewed as more cost effective than current TDM or POTS products and offers the benefit of converged traffic consolidation. State of the art hosted IP PBX solutions offer the expected level of features required by most companies and the added benefit of support for Unified Communications and associated capabilities such as application collaboration, telepresence, HD Voice, etc.

As I mentioned in a blog last year Warren Buffet stated in 1974 and again in 2008 "Now is the time to invest and get rich". My spin on that is this, "Now is the time to position your company for the future." Making the transition to IP communications now when the products are more mature, providers more stable and the pricing is more competitive is the smart and right thing to do. VoIP/SIP Trunking, hosted applications and managed services are the future of not just IP communications but communications in general. ABI Research's forecast validates what to many has been the obvious.