8 Years at the Top: NEC Continues to be the Global Leader in SMB Phone Systems

Investment in Comprehensive Product Portfolio, Ongoing Innovation and Strong Partner Relationships Propel NEC's Success

Tokyo, Irving, Hilversum, 19 January 2023 – NEC, a global leader in communications & IT solutions, announced today that it has been recognized as the number one provider of small and medium business (SMB) phone systems for eight consecutive years, and as number two globally in the overall unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) segment. This achievement highlights the strength of NEC's portfolio, the company's commitment to expanding its global enterprise presence, and its ability to fully satisfy customers.

 NEC has a rich history in communications and remains committed to providing cloud, hybrid or on-premises unified communications solutions for small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises. At the core of its offerings is the UNIVERGE® communications portfolio including the SL, SV and UNIVERGE 3C® premises-based communication servers as well as the UNIVERGE BLUE® cloud/hybrid offering.

“The way NEC looks at the world, it is about supporting our customers through their communications lifecycle and delivering value regardless of whether they are using on-premises solutions, moving to a hybrid solution, or migrating to the cloud, future-proofing them at the same time,” said Ram Menghani, President, NEC Enterprise Communications Technology.

Global Expansion
MZA’s (www.mzaconsultants.com) reporting on the global Call Control market (excluding Multi-Tenant UCaaS voice solutions) shows that NEC has led all vendors in global shipments in the SMB segment (less than 100 licenses) for the last eight years*. With a present market share of 16% as reported as a Rolling Annual Total as per the third quarter of 2022, NEC is well ahead of all other companies in that segment.

"MZA’s recent report once again highlights our success as a leader in business communications," said Ronald Schapendonk, Global Marketing Director for NEC Enterprise Communications. "It is a clear recognition of the strength of our offerings and the ability to serve together with our Business Partners and our customers worldwide with excellent solutions and services that truly assist with communications challenges our customers are facing today and in the future. The global expansion of our UNIVERIGE BLUE CLOUD SERVICES (UCaaS and CCaaS) complements our on-premises portfolio and provides options to our business partners and customers to utilize these services as desired. Moreover, UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT BRIDGE provides on-premises customers an easy path to a hybrid cloud or full cloud solution, providing investment protection and value of digital transformation,” he added.

Powerful UCaaS and CCaaS Cloud Offering
Building on its global partnership with Intermedia, a dedicated cloud communications company, NEC’s UNIVERGE BLUE is one of the most comprehensive and powerful UCaaS and CCaaS cloud platform offerings available on the market. It offers a range of features including telephony, video conferencing, collaboration, backup, security, file sharing and contact center capabilities within a single solution. Businesses can take advantage of monthly billing and only pay for what they use, with full flexibility to scale up as needed.

Dynamic Delivery of Cloud Solutions in a Hybrid Model
Hybrid work and flexible deployment models are now the preferred choice for many businesses. By aligning their resources with current business requirements and taking advantage of scalable cloud solutions, they are able to open up opportunities for integration with business applications. While enterprises shift more workloads to the public cloud, strong demand remains to leverage existing infrastructure.

UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT BRIDGE extends on-premises business phone systems to the cloud via mobile and desktop applications while also adding chat, video conferencing, and file sharing and collaboration capabilities. The result is an integrated, all-in-one, UCaaS offering that affords NEC customers the flexibility to communicate and collaborate from anywhere, extends the life and capabilities of their current NEC phone system, and allows them to keep their existing hardware and phone number and migrate gradually as required.

The Customer has Full Freedom of Choice
As a result, NEC customers now have the flexibility to choose from a range of solutions, including a fully on-premises infrastructure, a 100% public cloud subscription-based solution, or any combination between the two in a hybrid working model. As NEC covers all bases and offers a full range of choices – on-premises, cloud, or hybrid – this ensures NEC and its business partners can provide what’s best for each end customer.

One thing is clear; we are here to stay. Whether the preference is on-premises, cloud-based or a hybrid business model, our focus is on providing customers the freedom of choice with a spectrum of highly integrated customizable solutions and services. With our strong foothold in the on-premises call control market and the flexibility we provide customers to add the newest cloud services to support their increasingly hybrid workforce, I look forward to prolonging our market leadership and celebrating the 10th anniversary of our market-leading position two years from now,” Schapendonk concludes.

* Source MZA Call Control (PBX-IP PBX) Market Reports 2015-2022

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