While enterprise spending on most of the ICT solutions in Australia is set to decline in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, communications and collaboration software market will buck the trend and register a Y-o-Y growth of 20%, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s revised market opportunity forecasts for enterprise ICT in Australia reveals that the communications and collaboration software market size in the country will reach US$621m by end of 2020, which is about 1.1% more than what it was estimated for, before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Nidhi Gupta, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, says: “With the COVID-19 pandemic compelling businesses and government offices to embrace new ways of communication and collaboration, and accelerating their shift towards remote working to ensure business continuity, the adoption of communication and collaboration software has increased across enterprises in the country.”

Enterprise social networking and collaboration platforms, which enable employees to collaborate remotely through features like instant messaging, video and audio conferencing, virtual workspaces, and screen/application sharing, are especially gaining traction, and will see its revenue grow Y-o-Y by 29% in 2020.

Revenue from communication platforms, including cloud-based communication software will grow by 6% in 2020 compared to its baseline growth forecast of 3% for the year.

After registering a robust Y-o-Y revenue growth in 2020, communications and collaboration software market in Australia will maintain its momentum and register a CAGR of 13.8% over the forecast period 2019-2024.

Ms Gupta concludes: “While SMEs will remain the largest revenue contributing segment for communication and collaboration software market in Australia through the forecast period, given the long-term digital transformation strategies, large enterprises will represent the fastest growing market segment.”