Ribbon's Unified Communications Research on APAC Confirms Opportunity and Need for Comprehensive Solutions

Security continues to be under-addressed; six-city roadshow to highlight detailed in-country research

WESTFORD, Massachusetts, Sept. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global software leader in secure and intelligent cloud communications solutions, today announced the Asia Pacific (APAC) portion of its global research on Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SME) and Enterprise purchase drivers around Unified Communications (UC). This segment of the survey reflects the responses of 850 IT decision-makers, representing multiple industries in Australia; mainland China; Hong Kong; India; Japan; Malaysia; New Zealand; Singapore; and Thailand.

"As we continue to examine the research results, we are discovering that despite some regional differences, the overall story is consistent," said Patrick Joggerst, Ribbon's CMO and EVP of Business Development. "There is a significant opportunity for UCaaS providers around the world as long they are able to meet customers' needs for security, service assurance, third-party integration and advanced functionality. With the increased the availability of these key features, delivering on these capabilities is essential."

Ribbon's research shows that APAC companies with more than 1,000 employees were the most likely to have adopted UC (34% compared to 13 to 26% for smaller companies) and that mid-sized non-adopters had the highest intent to adopt within 2 years (69% for companies with 21 to 100 employees and 77% for those with 100 to 1,000 employees). These results are consistent with the global and European data that was previously released, where larger companies have led in UC adoption.

"Ribbon's in-depth regional research is a great complement to the Poly business focus as we work to best serve our mutual customers," said Cary Bran, Poly's Senior Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships. "We look forward to interacting with customers and partners in the Asia Pacific market with Ribbon as we continue to deepen our understanding of their key business needs."

Additional findings from the research include:

• While 47% of UC adopters bought their UC service from traditional providers, that number dropped to 15% for those planning to buy within two years. Their intent was almost evenly divided, with mobile and competitive providers rating 14% each, IT services companies at 12%, Cable and Over The Top (OTT) providers garnering 11%, and phone resellers at 10%.
• UC Security emerged once again as a key concern: 68% percent of respondents' companies had been victimized by attacks, including robocallers, telephony denial of service, toll fraud and more, and 87% of the respondents believed that the UC provider should be the one shouldering the responsibility for protecting them, an even higher number than in Ribbon's EMEA survey (81%).

From September 16 to 26, 2019, the Ribbon and Poly UC Market Intelligence APAC roadshow will bring executives from both companies together with current and prospective customers for a detailed readout of the research results. Events will be held in Taipei, Bangkok, Singapore, Auckland, Melbourne and Sydney. Please visit https://info.rbbn.com/uc-market-2019-apac/ for more information and to register.

Ribbon's comprehensive portfolio of Edge Orchestration, Intelligent Edge, UCaaS and Security and Analytics solutions helps providers utilize the insights from the research to offer secure and flexible communications technologies to their Enterprise customers and drive positive business outcomes.

About Ribbon Communications

Ribbon Communications delivers market-leading software solutions that secure and power many of the world's leading service provider and enterprise communications environments. Built on world-class technology and intellectual property, the company's cloud-native solutions deliver intelligent and secure real-time communications solutions for the cloud, network and enterprise edge. Ribbon's Kandy Cloud real-time communications software platform delivers advanced and embedded CPaaS and UCaaS capabilities enabling service providers to rapidly create and deploy high-value communications services. To learn more, visit ribboncommunications.com.

Important Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements  

The information in this release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events that involve risks and uncertainties, including statement regarding delivering value to customers. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release are forward-looking statements. The actual results of Ribbon Communications may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Ribbon Communications' business, please refer to the "Risk Factors" section of Ribbon Communications' most recent annual or quarterly report filed with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements represent Ribbon Communications' views only as of the date on which such statement is made and should not be relied upon as representing Ribbon Communications' views as of any subsequent date. While Ribbon Communications may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point, Ribbon Communications specifically disclaims any obligation to do so.

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