Mobile Apps, Cloud Computing and Unified Messaging Boost South Africa's Enterprise IM Market

­The growth of the enterprise instant messaging market in South Africa is being driven by the increasing adoption of unified messaging and unified communications.

However, innovation vendors are facing the challenge of low awareness of the soft return on instant messaging applications, limited interoperability of different vendor products as so then as limited affordability of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the market. Vendors have developed strategies to offer mobile applications, cloud-based instant messaging and industry-specific solutions to SMEs, which are expected to be the driver of future market growth.

The market earned earnings of $1

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds that the market earned earnings of $1.7 million in 2010 and estimates this to reach $10.3 million in 2017.

"With booming mobile applications, instant messaging installed on advanced mobile handsets just as Blackberry, iPhone and Tablet is allowing their use as enabling devices for corporate employees to keep in constant communication, whether they are on the move or in the office building," notes Frost & Sullivan's ICT Industry Analyst Jiaqi Sun. "The increased mobility of instant messaging is driving market growth."

The market with a large customer base

In comparison to numerous free public applications available in the market with a large customer base, enterprise instant messaging has a very limited interoperability among vendor products and with public instant messaging applications. Hence, it cannot support enterprise communications with external stakeholders; this restrains the service uptake of enterprise instant messaging.