Unified Communications-as-a-Service MetriRank 2024

Authors: Diane Myers, Senior Research Director & Principal Analyst Metrigy’s global Workplace Collaboration MetriCast 2024 market size and forecast study, conducted with 998 companies, finds that 50% of businesses worldwide are using UC as a service (UCaaS) as their sole phone and collaboration platform. The adoption of UCaaS provides businesses with flexibility and scalability, the ability to move to an OpEx model, quicker access to enhanced capabilities, including artificial intelligence (AI), and more. In this UCaaS MetriRank 2024 report, Metrigy examines the leading providers across product capabilities, financials, and customer insights. The global market for UCaaS was $20.6 billion in 2023, up 9% year-over-year. Metrigy forecasts the market to grow at a 5% CAGR from 2023 to 2028, reaching $26.7 billion by 2028. UCaaS delivers cost-effective services with sophisticated product features for small, midsize, and large companies. The UCaaS market has been highly competitive, with providers of varying sizes, capabilities, and reach—some are global, and others are regional. However, the market has coalesced around a few large providers, with Microsoft as the market share leader and tough to beat, forcing other UCaaS providers to figure out ways to coexist with integrated telephony and contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) solutions. When it comes to baseline features and capabilities—calling, meetings, messaging—there is little differentiation among UCaaS offerings. Rather, providers are winning based on factors such as licensing structure and costs; integration with productivity application suites from vendors such as Google, Microsoft, and Zoho; security features; AI capabilities; installed base of legacy PBX customers; desire for a single-vendor platform for UCaaS and CCaaS; and channel reach. The market has been marked by extensive mergers and acquisitions, but consolidation has begun to slow. Although the top 10 list has been fairly consistent over the past few years, the biggest providers are getting bigger and the smaller providers have struggled, particularly in the face of Microsoft’s ability to dominate the market.