A look back at the 2011 telephone market for 50 users or more

Wave is Vertical Communications solution for the 50+ extension market.  There have been a slew of upgrades and new features since 2010 and this, along with a reseller price drop at the start of 2011 has shot Wave out of the starting blocks. 

Now over three quarters through the year Wave is continuing to exceed all expectations with more and more solutions being deployed.   ICON has seen double figure growth compared with last year.  In a market which is experiencing little growth overall this is quite impressive.  Once customers have experienced Wave in action they come back for more.  One government service is expected to spin out Wave in its centres across the UK.  

The feedback from the Channel is that when going head to head with the alternative solutions Wave wins on value for money and functionality.  Wins include installs in retail, hospitality, government, and manufacturing.  Mark Shane Sales and Marketing Director at ICON commented, “In the government sector especially we have seen a lot of wins for Wave as a result it pushing out the incumbent vendors solution” 

A strength of Wave IP is its free out of the box UC apps.  Now, Vertical is introducing an apps store for Wave.   Up and running in the US this will be an invaluable source of additional apps.  It will enable Channel Partners to add even more functionality to Wave IP bids.

The move by vendors to shift product strategy to that of selling a platform on which comms apps can be run is a developing trend in many markets.  Vertical already has an apps store for USA resellers of the IP-PBX Wave and Polycom is expected to move to a KIRK handset platform that runs “apps”