Frost & Sullivan: Google Storms Unified Communications and Collaboration Market

LONDON, August 18, 2010 - Google, a California-based search and advertising services giant, has
been known to employ aggressive acquisitive strategies towards the domination
of new markets. A recent surge of takeovers such as Android, 2Web
Technologies, Marratech, GrandCentral, Gizmo5, and other innovative
communications and collaboration firms, as well as recently developed and
launched products, show that the Unified Communications and Collaboration
(UCC) market is one of the Google's directions. Despite being a new entrant,
Google, with its proactive approach, abundant capital and human resources,
will very likely become a major UCC participant in the coming years.

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"Although Google has not officially announced this strategy," says Dorota
Oviedo, Industry Analyst for Frost & Sullivan Unified Communications &
Collaboration group, "it is evident that, by continually adding new UCC
applications to its portfolio and focusing on integrating them, the company
is effectively entering the UCC market. In recent years, Google's culture of
innovation, numerous acquisitions, and openness to third party developers
have resulted in a number of product launches in the UCC space, which in
addition to Google Apps included a VoIP service (Google Voice), social media
tool (Google Buzz), mobile services (Android) and recently abandoned online
collaboration platform (Google Wave)"

At present, available features are not sufficient to make Google the UCC
suite of choice for majority of large enterprises; however, the company
already provides several synchronous and asynchronous UCC tools, delivered
from a cloud as an integrated stack of applications. Accompanied by
efficacious pricing, flexibility and ease of use, these tools are hugely
appealing to businesses, particularly to small and medium businesses (SMBs).
The integration of other, less critical consumer services with enterprise
applications will further improve services offered and help in growing the
corporate customer base.

"Until recently, Google has not been perceived by enterprise
communication and collaboration vendors as serious competition," adds Iwona
Petruczynik, Research Analyst from Unified Communications & Collaboration
group, Frost & Sullivan. "UCC vendors typically argue that Google services,
being founded on consumer applications, are not suitable for a corporate
world and do not form a complete UCC suite. However, they should recognise
where Google is heading in the future and how quickly its products are
evolving."

Launched in March 2010, Google Apps Marketplace offers cloud-based
applications in various business categories. This online store greatly
supports wider adoption of Google Apps with new integrated utilities,
offering vertically-specific customisation and expanded functionality. Such
integration enables further productivity enhancements, as they leverage
existing Google Apps data, such as contacts, calendar availability, and
documents across multiple applications.

Moreover, Google is expected to launch the enterprise version of its
Google Voice service during late 2010. Google Apps, enhanced with Google
Voice and several other consumer applications, will create a very
cost-effective UCC package for businesses. By the end of this year, Google
Apps will have more than 90 different applications, such as Picasa and Google
Reader, offering an abundance of new capabilities.

UCC vendors should closely watch Google and its ever expanding suite of
UCC services. By constantly innovating and integrating all its applications
and services into one powerful but cost-effective productivity-enhancing
business package, the company has already positioned itself as a strong and
fast-moving participant of the UCC market.

If you would like to receive more information on Frost & Sullivan Market
Insight entitled "Google's Enterprise Universe: Google Storms the Unified
Communications and Collaboration Market", or would like to learn more about
UCC market, please contact Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications, at
Joanna.lewandowska@frost.com, with your full name, company name, job title
and contact details.

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    Contact:
    Joanna Lewandowska
    Corporate Communications - Europe
    P: +48-22-390-41-46
    E: joanna.lewandowska@frost.com

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Joanna Lewandowska, Frost & Sullivan, Corporate Communications - Europe, +48-22-390-41-46, joanna.lewandowska at frost.com