Yankee Group Research Finds VoIP Adoption in Contact Centers on Accelerated Rise; The Next 3 Years Will be Prime Growth Period for VoIP Technologies, Deployment Tripling by end of 2007

Business Wire, August 14, 2006

BOSTON -- Yankee Group today revealed that VoIP penetration in the contact center and sales of related products are poised for significant increase by year end 2007. With 38% of contact centers currently researching and investigating VoIP, the technology deployment rate will likely grow even more dramatically as these investigations drive VoIP conversion decisions in the future. A primary driver of the transition to VoIP is a desire to effectively and efficiently place and manage remote agents; contact centers view the technology as a way to implement an "agents anywhere" strategy and to manage the remote workers more cheaply and flexibly.

According to Migration Costs, Vendor Loyalty and Need for "Agents Anywhere" Define Contact Center VoIP Adoption Plans, a Yankee Group Report published recently, the VoIP adoption rate in North American contact centers will grow from approximately 17% in 2005 to greater than 47% by the end of 2007. In addition, the study predicts that the VoIP penetration rate of agent seats will increase from 16% in 2005 to more than 60% over the next three years. While the significant growth in VoIP adoption in the contact center spans centers of all sizes, the most aggressive segment for growth appears to be centers with 500 or more agent seats. The preferred channels for increased VoIP product acquisitions will be the traditional telecommunications companies and telephony hardware/software vendors over system integrators and value-added resellers. And while customers report data networking vendors will certainly be involved in the planning phases of VoIP, it is unlikely they will overcome traditional contact center providers in application sales in the near term.

"'Agents anywhere' including home agents will be the consistent theme for contact center VoIP transition justification," said Ken Landoline, Yankee Group Customer-Centric Strategies Senior Analyst. "VoIP market growth in the next 3 years is encouraging news for vendors of VoIP contact center solutions. Vendors can best capitalize on this growth opportunity by articulating VoIP lifecycle savings along with voice quality and security issues in their sales and marketing plans. These are areas in which users indicate they need the most help in VoIP acquisition justification."

NOTE TO EDITORS

For interviews contact:

--Ken Landoline, Senior Analyst, 925-513-3632, klandoline@yankeegroup.com

--Christina Oh, Yankee Group Public Relations, 617-880-0238, coh@yankeegroup.com

YANKEE GROUP (www.yankeegroup.com)

Yankee Group is the expert in navigating the global connectivity revolution. For more than 35 years, Yankee Group's strategic vision, research and analysis, quantified market intelligence and credible advice have been guiding innovation and empowering our clients to make critical business decisions. Yankee Group is headquartered in Boston with presence throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.