Video conferencing and telepresence solutions (Russian market)

2023

Russian Videoconferencing Market: Estimates, Drivers, Largest Participants

According to J'son & Partners Consulting, audio and video conferencing markets will grow annually by 15% until 2025.

Fortune Business Insights predicts that the global market for unified communications and collaboration tools will grow at a 17.7% annual rate through 2030. The growth rate in Russia may be the same or higher.

TrueConf notes the tendency of the last two years to increase demand for domestic solutions AEROSPACE FORCES from businesses from various sectors of the economy.

At the end of 2023, TAdviser asked Russian industry experts to comment on the situation with import substitution in this area, take stock of recent years and share their vision of the future for the Russian market.

Market reaction to the departure of foreign vendors: estimates and results

According to experts, the VKS market has been showing stable growth since the start of the pandemic. Positive dynamics is associated with the transition of companies to a remote format of work and a trend towards import substitution.

In 2022, more than 90% of purchases accounted for Russian solutions, and in the public sector this figure was approaching 100% (Satel estimate ).

According to estimates Marvel Distributions , the volume of the Russian system market at video conferencings the end of 2022 was about 10-12 billion rubles.

Andrei Vratsky, CEO of the corporate communications and mobility platform eXpress, speaks of a total volume of 10-20 billion rubles. According to him, the budgets of companies have not changed, their redistribution has occurred in favor of Russian vendors.

TrueConfDevelopment Director Dmitry Odintsov believes that with the departure of Western vendors in 2022, the volume of costs for aerospace forces in the Russian Federation decreased sharply, but the share of Russian suppliers increased significantly. The expert draws attention to the fact that the market is formed not only by the need for video conferencing, but also by the relevant equipment, terminals, equipment of meeting rooms, technical support and other dedicated services.

In monetary terms, today it is at least 20 billion rubles a year, - he notes.

The spread of opinions may indicate a difference in the methodological approaches of companies' research. In addition, it is obvious that the market size is higher taking into account the cost of various equipment than if we count only software.

The largest market participants

In the ranking of the largest suppliers of video conferencing systems (VKS), prepared by TAdviser in 2022, 11 companies took part - vendors and integrators of such solutions. The leader of the overall rating was the HaiTek Group Hi-Tech. It increased its revenues from the implementation of VKS projects by 162.5% to 1.5 billion rubles. The top three also included the integrator of VKS systems - Unitsolutions and the vendor Trukonf.

The largest participants in the Russian videoconferencing systems market (vendors and integrators)

№	Company	-	Revenue from video conferencing projects for 2022, RUB million, incl. VAT	Revenue from the implementation of video conferencing systems in 2021, RUB million, incl. VAT	Dynamics 2022/2021,%
1	Hi-Tech Group of Companies (IVA Technologies)	Vendor	1518.4	578.5	162.5
2	Unitsolutions	Integrator	1393.8	528.1	163.9
3	Trukonf	Vendor	1190.4	795.5	49.6
4	Webinar Group	Vendor	1029	932	10.4
5	SATEL	Vendor	890	643	38.4
6	Vinteo	Vendor	726.8	397.7	82.8
7	eXpress	Vendor	580.9	425.7	36.5
8	I-Teco	Integrator	235.7	n/a	n/a
9	iCore	Integrator	214.6	75	186.1
10	GC X-Com	Integrator	146	112	30.4
11	Sitronics Group	Integrator	73	47	55.3
		Sum	7998.6

	TAdviser 2023
' '

The table below shows the six largest vendors of video conferencing systems, ranked by revenue from the supply/implementation of their own solutions. The top three are Hi-Tech Group, Trukonf and Webinar Group (MTS Link).

The largest vendors of video conferencing systems in Russia

№	Company	Revenue from the implementation of projects based on self-contained video conference systems for 2022, RUB million, incl. VAT	Revenue from the implementation of projects based on self-contained video conference systems for 2021, million rubles. including VAT	Dynamics 2022/2021,%	What video conferencing systems is being developed by the company	Number of staff engaged in the development, implementation and support of video conference systems as of 2023	Number of vendor partners implementing VKS systems	The largest projects in Russia
1	Hi-Tech GC (IVA Technologies)	1518.4	578.5	162.5	IVA MCU, IVA AVES S	over 100	over 100	n/a
2	Trukonf	1190.4	795.5	49.6	TrueConf Server, TrueConf Enterprise	[[MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS	200]]	Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (1 million VKS subscribers), Rostelecom (120 thousand VKS subscribers), Gazprom Neft (48 thousand VKS subscribers), Moscow Region Government (30 thousand VKS subscribers), Rosbank (12 thousand VKS subscribers)
3	Webinar Group	1029	932	10.4	Webinar Platform	259	n/a	Post Bank, Innopolis University, Peter the Great St. Petersburg State University, Worldskills, Russian Railways-Medicine
4	SATEL	890	643	38.4	RTU-Connect Video Conferencing Platform	n/a|n/a
5	Vinteo	726.8	397.7	82.8	VINTEO Video Conferencing Software Server, VINTEO T/ST Hardware Terminals	55	65	Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Moscow State University, Roscongress Foundation, CIT of Murmansk Region
6	eXpress	580.9	425.7	36.5	eXpress VKS	220	> 10 [[Rosatom	Russian Railways]], Rosatom, Norilsk Nickel, etc.
	Sum	5935.5

	TAdviser 2023
' '

In a separate list of integrators, he leads by a noticeable margin. The Unitsolutions top three also included companies I-Teco and. iCore

The largest integrators of video conferencing systems in Russia

№	Company	Revenue from video conferencing projects for 2022, RUB million, incl. VAT	Revenue from the implementation of video conferencing systems in 2021, RUB million, incl. VAT	Dynamics 2022/2021,%	What video conferencing systems the company is implementing	The largest projects in Russia
1	Unitsolutions	1393.8	528.1	163.9	TrueConf Server, TrueConf Enterprise, TrueConf Coordinator, CleverMic, CleverCam	Ministry of Energy of Russia, Federal State Statistics Service, United Energy Company JSC, Rostest-Moscow FBU, MIAC, Sverdlovsk Region
2	I-Teco	235.7	N/A	N/A	Vinteo	N/A
[[ICore (CJSC Ai Ko)	iCore	214,6	75	186,1	Poly,TrueConf, IVA	н/д]]
[[X-Com (X com)	ГК X-Com	146	112	30,4	TrueConf, Logitech	н/д]]
[[Sitronics	Sitronics Group	73	47	55,3	н/д	н/д]]
	Sum	2063,1

	TAdviser 2023
' '

2023 drivers

"Boom," "necessity," "migration," "the main and only driver" - experts use such words when they talk about the trend of import substitution in the industry. And everyone speaks about this without exception, noting the dominant role of this factor in the ongoing changes in 2023. The need to switch to domestic IT solutions was supported by the state, and today Russian companies are confidently holding their positions.

The growth and development of the Russian VKS market is facilitated by the active process of import substitution in the public sector. Compared to 2022, the VKS market and VKS services in Russia increased by 15-20%, - notes Alexey Kirsankin, head of the video conferencing department of AMT GROUP.

Already at the end of 2022, more than 85% of VKS platforms on the market were represented by domestic products. The most active introduction of domestic VKS systems took place in the public sector (21%), as well as in the field of education (15%) and IT companies (8%), - says Ivan Pavlov, project manager at Telfin.

The growth of the market was also influenced by the deepening trend in the spread of the standard of remote or hybrid work formats among Russian businesses. Companies are forced to use VKS systems to ensure comfortable communication of employees without losing productivity. So, according to Logitech the Analytical Center, NAFI 52% of companies with equipment for VKS use it 1-3 times a week, and 24% - 4-7 times a week.

Closely adjacent to the "remote" trend is the formation of a request for a full-fledged digital place.

In addition to standard video conferencing, the inclusion of VKS in the company's business processes, the ability to conduct webinars, and withstand high loads became important for vendor customers.

The comfort of interaction and a single environment that offers modern tools focused on one platform are important for employees and applicants, "says Anna Kuzyakina, Commercial Director of DION.

Business would like to combine all the tools for daily work in one interface, - says Vladimir Karpenko, senior product manager at MTS Link.

Other experts also say that there is a request for All-in-1 products on the market. An increasing number of companies consider video conferencing not only as a component of unified communications platforms, but also as an integral part of complex solutions for team collaboration.

There remains a demand for solutions created for webinars or for communications within companies. But the bar for the quality and functionality of the VKS has grown a lot over the year.

According to Roman Romanov, most companies were interested in adapting solutions to their needs and customizing the interface for embedding in branding. That is why domestic developers of VKS solutions were forced to take into account new requirements and quickly improve the technological stack of the proposed solutions, increasing their functionality and thereby the number of implementations.

In 2023, along with an increase in customer requests, the number of new solutions also grew. The tendency to enter the market of new players did not reduce the turnover.

Since 2020, Russian "killers" regularly appear, Zoom this year even marketplaces "went" into video communication. However, it is not enough to wrap the basic functionality in a beautiful candy wrapper - such a product will not become a professional solution. Video conferencing products, which are multiplying at incredible speed, are aimed at quickly conquering the market, "said the Boris Popov company's business development director. Vinteo

In his opinion, such decisions are unlikely to have a great future.

In general, 2023 can be considered a period when customers looked closely at the market and tested solutions. If in 2022 companies came with a request for a "second Microsoft Teams," now the majority have already realized that identical software does not exist, "says Anastasia Lakner, commercial director of First Form.

According to her feelings, newcomers to the market sometimes turn out to be more technological and brown than their "venerable" colleagues.

Beginners are now more technologically advanced, often with a mobile app and good UI. In addition, unlike "mature" competitors, it is easier for them to carry out internal changes, for example, to engage in clustering, the expert commented.

According to the head of the VKS direction of the Marvel Distribution company, Yevgeny French, over the year the VKS market grew by 40-50% year-on-year.

Dmitry Klipach, head of the system integration department at Unitsolutions, believes that the market growth rate, as of the end of 2023, is formed by representatives of large businesses.

Import substitution processes, successes, problems and weaknesses of Russian vendors, industry challenges

The import substitution process in the industry began long before 2022. Experts call the pandemic one of the first powerful drivers. Then interest in Russian VKS systems grew many times.

Until 2022, Russian video conferencing solutions mainly attracted public sector enterprises as part of a migration to domestic software, and then commercial customers turned to such products.

This partly explains the fact that customers of Russian vendors do not experience critical problems with basic functionality at the end of 2023. And yet there are problems.

Problems and limitations

First, the emergence of many alternatives to foreign solutions from new players led to a glut in the market, but did not significantly affect its volumes.

Secondly, experts talk about the "mental" barrier on the part of users who have to change their habits. Domestic vendors are forced to make great efforts to adjust their solutions to the requirements of customers who are accustomed to a certain level of service and functionality.

Most importantly: a large share of solutions offered on the market covers only a limited circuit of online communications. Some systems allow you to conduct only webinars or videoconferences, others are intended only for creating group chats. As a result, a company that has chosen such a "narrow" solution has to connect other services and migrate from one to another, depending on current tasks.

Despite the fact that many new cloud solutions have appeared, they cannot yet replace Zoom.

The assessments of some experts differ polar as to whether domestic vendors managed to create a full-fledged replacement for MS Teams.

Many experts talk about the youth of the industry and, as a result, its underfunded and unproductive products.

Pros and cons

Today in Russia there are video communication technologies, communication channels and the demand for VKS solutions. There are no real obstacles to import substitution in the corporate segment of communications, experts are sure.

Dmitry Odintsov, Development Director of TrueConf:

Using the example of our country, users from all over the world were convinced that the risk of being blocked by a "one button" and losing access to established working tools is quite real, and even if foreign IT companies return to the Russian market, there are no guarantees that the situation will not happen again.

Domestic solutions have a number of advantages: accessibility in the country, independence from blockages and sanctions (in the case of autonomous products), security updates and Russian-language technical support.

With the development of domestic software platforms, their price availability also increased for small and medium-sized businesses, which before that often used free Western services or used them by subscription for a reasonable fee.

Russian developers have already managed to achieve an acceptable quality of products that meet the basic needs of customers. They are still inferior to the reference Western products, but this difference is rapidly decreasing.

Russian developers are doing a lot of new things in their solutions and are maximizing compatibility with terminal and server equipment of foreign companies (Cisco, Polycom, Avaya, Lifesize...). Requirements for users are reduced, providing the opportunity to start using VKS solutions as quickly as possible. A number of VKS services (Zoom, MS Teams) cannot be completely replaced, but their use is reduced and replaced by VKS services from Russian developers. In terms of heavy solutions, everything is also very good, and here we can talk about the maximum replacement of imported solutions in the contour of the enterprise. In 2023, domestic suppliers of server equipment appeared, without which the deployment of the VKS system was difficult, the choice of server equipment is expanding, which significantly affects the reduction in the timing of the introduction of new or expansion of existing VKS solutions, "says Alexey Kirsankin, head of the video conferencing department of AMT GROUP.

The market presents Russian developments in all technological classes - from the "heavy" classical VKS to the simplest video communicators. At the same time, in some aspects, "we not only caught up, but also overtook," some experts say.

At the moment, Russian VKS systems are the only option for ensuring the predictable and very active development of communication platforms. They are easier to set up, better integrated, because vendors can communicate with each other and make joint development plans.

Developers interact with the business directly, quickly learn about its needs and new requests. Feedback from customers forms the basis for planning the further development of platforms. And confidence in Russian technologies for video conferencing is gradually growing.

Approximately ¾ of our customers have already implemented or are implementing domestic VKS solutions in one form or another. Sometimes you have to modernize systems right during the implementation and implement the new functionality that has appeared, - said the Albert Islamov technical director of the system integrator. CTI

Challenges and Growth Points

Next year, manufacturers will have to actively fight for the attention of customers due to the emergence of new players from China on the Russian market.

Difficult situation with audio and video equipment. It is necessary to develop the production of domestic solutions, primarily hardware processor platforms. The use of Chinese solutions does not solve the problem of independence from imports (assessment TrueConf).

One of the growth points for domestic developers of VKS systems is associated with the creation of complex solutions with a single management and a single guarantee, covering all the needs of the audience. Several Russian companies are working on such products at once. It is expected that as soon as they appear, customers will be willing to switch to them. At the moment, Russian manufacturers mainly offer sets of equipment consisting of mini-PCs, foreign cameras and microphones. There is a shortage of Russian endpoints (Marvel Distribution estimate ).

Representatives of large companies call the most expected VKS functionality tools for joint work, including online boards, polls, voting, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for speech recognition and meeting logging.

Boris Popov believes that today Russia needs a company that will formalize existing technological solutions in the form of a service and will begin to provide it through telecom operators for the mass market. According to him, significant financial and temporary resources need to be invested in this process, as Zoom did at the start. The same Zoom and MS Teams are not just video communication, but a service from a cloud provider, which is built on the basis of communication operator networks and provides the very mass connection with low tariffs for users.

Prospects for 2024

In 2023, the process of transition to domestic VKS among representatives of large business, production and industry, including nuclear, accelerated. The share of Russian products has grown significantly. The focus from confronting Western vendors has shifted to intra-market competition between Russian companies, as well as to the segment of web conference and video communication services for the mass market.

Experts estimate the growth prospects of the VKS systems market in 2024 in the range of 10-50%. There is an opinion that this year customers will completely stop buying Western solutions.

Anastasia Lakner predicts a boom for the purchase of Russian aerospace forces.

If in 2023 the companies looked closely and tested, then in 2024 they will buy. Even those who have already chosen the VKS in 2022 are now watching new solutions with interest, she says.

Leonid Zhestev, Director of the Center for Multimedia Solutions of LANIT-Integration:

Now we are seeing a significant demand for the introduction of domestic VKS from companies that have decided to postpone the modernization of their systems in the last two years.

Alexey Kirsankin, Head of Video Conferencing Department of AMT GROUP:

In 2024, there will also be an increase in the market of VKS and VKS solutions, many commercial organizations are already more actively looking towards import substitution of current VKS solutions, and software of domestic developers will be even more actively introduced in the public sector. The market is likely to grow by another 10-15% compared to 2023. Also, the growth of the VKS market and VKS services will be influenced by the development of VKS technologies and a decrease in the cost of VKS solutions.

According to a recent study by TAdviser and MTS Link, many large Russian companies (40% of respondents) are still planning to introduce or replace communications services in the near future. In 100% of cases, they consider Russian solutions.

The positive trend is not in doubt for anyone, even a decrease in the growth rate is not seriously considered. But each of the speakers interviewed for this review draws attention to the nuances close to him and makes original accents.

In 2024, we expect an average growth of 12-13%, but it is too early to say - Anna Kuzyakina expressed such a neat opinion.

Boris Popov believes that growth will be from 20%. At the same time, in his opinion, 2024 will be marked by an increase in the number of implementations of Russian solutions in order to have time for the deadline for transferring KII objects to completely domestic software.

Evgeny French is confident that the growth will be at least 40% year-on-year, since the process of replacing Western vendors has not been completed, Russian companies should free up resources after replacing KII, and many projects were postponed to next year.

Dmitry Odintsov notes that the market at the end of 2023 grew by 40-50% and the next 2 years the trend will continue. However, Microsoft and Zoom may return, which will practically not affect the market size, but will strengthen competition and slow down the growth of the share of domestic players, the expert said.

One way or another, every year more and more high-quality and mature video conferencing services appear on the Russian market, and vendors begin to pay attention to the next step - combining all business communications within one interface.

Unified communications is the main trend that will remain with us in 2024, - Vladimir Karpenko is sure.

Forge "iron" and software, while hot

The Russian market for VKS systems is rapidly developing, new companies and solutions are emerging. And although there are difficulties in the industry, all speakers interviewed by TAdviser agree that the current situation can be described as growth.

Of course, import substitution had a positive effect on domestic players in the VKS market - thanks to the departure of foreign vendors, Russian platforms were in a winning position, increasing the client base several times, - said Ivan Pavlov.

The Russian VKS market has much to grow both in terms of hardware and software solutions, and in terms of volume, "Leonid Zhestev is sure.

In the current situation, it's strange not to grow up, "says Andrei Vratsky.

As for the prospects, the players face serious challenges, and there is a lot of work to be done. However, all obstacles are completely surmountable. The future for years to come is seen by specialists rather in a positive way.

Anna Kuzyakina, Commercial Director of DION:

The Russian corporate communications market is now experiencing explosive growth. Both new players and long-standing companies on the market are developing. If the trend for import substitution continues, then in the near future our products will be able to provide functionality and user experience similar to those given by departed Western vendors. I would like customers to choose Russian solutions not from the limited available options, but because they are really competitive.

2022: Russians switch to domestic video conferencing services after the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine and US sanctions and their satellites

In 2022, according to analysts, Big Data MTS mobile traffic on foreign platforms video conferencings fell by 19% compared to 2021, and Russian traffic increased by 41%.

The biggest drops were shown by Webex - 81%, Microsoft Teams - 39%, Google Meet - 36%, Zoom Meetings - 16% and Skype - 10%. Webinar Group has the largest growth - 44%, Yandex.Telemost - 32%, VKonki - 23%.

The number of Russians who have launched video conferencing services at least once increased by 5% in 2022. Despite the abolition of remote work in many companies, people continue to actively use services for VKS to work and communicate with loved ones.

2021

79% of companies use complex VKS solutions for conference rooms in their offices

79% of companies use complex VKS solutions for conference rooms in their offices, including conference cameras and video boards, 33% use speakerphones. The most popular solutions for personal workplaces are webcams and laptops with a built-in camera (79% and 73%, respectively). Such data were presented on February 10, 2022 by Logitech and NAFI following the results of the study "Hybrid format of work as a trend for the coming years," conducted in November 2021. Read more here.

Russian videoconferencing market 2021: trends, barriers, prospects

By 2025, 50% of all corporate meetings will be held in a video conferencing format - according to a recent Gartner report released on October 7, 2021. It lists the tasks solved by modern video conferencing systems (VKS):

• overcoming geographical barriers to communications within the company/organization;
• increased involvement of remote workers;
• support of work from home office;
• reducing the number of business trips and related expenses;
• holding corporate events;
• education of students;
• automation of recording and transcribing of discussions within video conferencing.

Russian VKS market in the context of the world

The size of the global market for corporate video conferencing systems (VKS systems), which are classified by Gartner as "meeting solutions," is assessed differently by research companies. Obviously, the difficulty is that there is no unified approach to assessing the components of the market, there are differences in the calculation method, and most importantly - even in developed Western countries it is difficult to ensure the completeness of the data collected. At the same time, all analysts agree that the market has been growing at a high pace for several years and will grow for a long time, even after the end of the pandemic.

Thus, the research company Global Marketing Insight (GMI) in a report published in October 2021 estimated the total volume of the global video conferencing market in 2020 (equipment, software, cloud services) at $15 billion. The estimated cumulative average annual growth (CAGR) for the period up to 2027 is 23%, the volume at the end of the designated period is $75 BILLION^[1]

The volume of the Russian VKS market is an order of magnitude more modest. This is how Stanislav Iodkovsky, CEO of IVA Technologies (IVKS), estimates its size. The expert considers the VKS segment as a component of the unified communications market.

According to our data, based on information from open sources, as well as data collected by the analytical department, the volume of the unified communications market in Russia in 2020 amounted to more than $300 million, which is about 30% more than in 2019, says Stanislav Iodkovsky. - At the same time, the share of VKS as a segment of the UC market, again according to our estimates, in 2020 accounted for about 60%

Thus, the volume of the VKS segment in 2020 can be valued at $0.18 billion. And if we take the volume of the global market for $15 billion (GMI studies) for another initial data for a simple calculation, then the Russian VKS market is about 1.2% of the global one.

Returning to Gartner's research - despite the modest volume, the Russian VKS market has world-class achievements: for three years now, the Russian company TrueConf has been entering the Magic Quadrant Meeting Solutions as a niche player. And in this lower left side of the quadrant, TrueConf is at the end of 2021 in a worthy company with American vendors Adobe, LifeSize and Chinese Quanshi.

Boris Popov, director of business development at Vinteo, recalls that the Russian VKS market was originally created exclusively by Western vendors, since there were simply no domestic solutions.

In the 2000s, VKS systems were expensive and complex, only large state and commercial structures could afford them - they became the main customers of video conferencing, forming this small segment of the IT market, - said Boris Popov. "In fact, 90% of VKS networks were built on the equipment of foreign vendors, among which Avaya, Cisco Systems, Polycom (now Poly) were the most popular, and domestic players entered the market precisely as part of the import substitution program, which began in 2014"

Since VKS systems are part of unified communications solutions, it is appropriate to talk about this global market. This is all the more important because, according to experts, everything is moving towards the formation of a single unified communications ecosystem, which is facilitated, in particular, by the WebRTC standard.

The global unified communications market is actively developing. IDC estimates sales of equipment and software in this market at the end of 2020 at $47.2 billion. And Unified Communication As A Service (UCaaS) cloud services are one of its segments that is also growing rapidly. IDC estimates the global UCaaS market at $16.4 billion at the end of 2020, an increase of 21.2%. Gartner leads a special quadrant - Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service. There are no Russian vendors in it yet. But the Russian IT market in almost all its aspects follows the global one in its development, so it can be assumed that the emergence of domestic vendors capable of reaching the global level, at least in terms of functionality, is a matter of time.

Leaders of the Russian VKS market

The pandemic gave a strong impetus to the development of global and Russian video conferencing markets in 2020, and growth continued in 2021. According to TAdviser, accumulated for 2005-2021, as of November 2021, more than 4.6 thousand projects for the implementation of VKS systems have been implemented in Russia.

Among the developers of VKS systems, Spirit (VideoMost) is the leader in the number of implemented projects - 1691 implementations, followed by TrueConf with a slight lag - 1605, Mind in third place - 568, Microsoft and Cisco in fourth and fifth places - 140 and 98. Thus, two companies - Spirit and TrueConf account for about 70% of all implemented projects recorded by TAdviser.

Note here that as of October 2020, TrueConf was in the lead - 1503 projects, Spirit was in second place with 1475 implementations.

Classification of modern VKS and their customers

Our experts state that the Russian video communication market is oversaturated with a variety of supplier solutions in price and quality - from expensive negotiation complexes to free software services.

Boris Popov (Vinteo) calls the lack of clear procedures for evaluating solutions for compliance with VKS standards the main problem of the market.

Because of this, in many departments of the VKS system, which should work in a single network throughout the country, are incompatible with each other, and this slows down the development of such important areas as telemedicine, distance education, etc., the expert believes. - At the same time, in today's reviews of the video communications market, as a rule, there is no division of solutions into classes, vendors and integrators are given in a single list

Here it will be appropriate to bring the points of view of our experts on the classification of existing VKS systems and technologies, which, oddly enough, have certain differences even among professionals.

Boris Popov (Vinteo) identifies three main classes of technology:

• video conferencing: the most professional class of solutions, based on the standards of the International Telecommunication Union (International Telecommunication Union), the core of the system is MCU (Multipoint Control Unit) video communication servers, developers use SIP and H.323 protocols, H.265/HEVC codecs, HighProfile H.264/AVC/SVC/, H.263, number of subscribers unlimited, high image and sound quality, without delay, presence effect (telepresence) is implemented;
• web conference: the VKS server is engaged only in switching audio and video streams, the main load on their processing falls on processor subscriber devices, there are restrictions on the number of subscribers, high image and sound quality is not guaranteed, delays are possible;
• video commutator or video telephone: point-to-point communication technology, the number of subscribers does not exceed 10-12 people

Solutions belonging to different classes have different advantages and restrictions, use different technologies, support different functionality and quality of video communication, are intended for different tasks and, in general, are technically incompatible with each other - Boris Popov draws attention.

Dmitry Odintsov, Development Director of TrueConf, proposed the classification of VKS by other parameters: the protocols used and the method of implementation (cloud/on its site). The expert also commented on the peculiarities of the use of each class, gave examples of VKS products. He explains that VKS systems mean classes of infrastructure solutions, and terminal equipment for any class can be any (PC, browsers, mobile, "conversations").

Classification of VKS by protocol types and implementation method. TrueConf Data

Class	Class description	Cloud implementation: examples, customer portrait, features	Dedicated/Server: Examples, Customer Portrait, Features
1	Based on standard SIP/H.323 protocols with standard signaling|[[BlueJeans Meetings	BlueJeans]] Company, having a small fleet of SIP/H.323 VKS terminals in meeting rooms and not ready to purchase its own MCU server It is not safe, because standard video communication protocols are poorly protected, high subscription costs and network administration complexity	TrueConf MCU, Cisco Meeting Server, Pexip Traditional customers of VKS solutions, there are many meeting rooms with VKS terminals, Proprietary IT and Service Competency Outdated and poorly protected technology, so often closes into a separate perimeter. For conferences no more than 50 participants, extremely high cost of scaling, limited functionality, linear dependence of the hardware price on the number of conference participants
2	Based on the standard WebRTC protocol with proprietary signaling	Google Meet, Yandex.Teleconference Often these are private users or small businesses, without competencies in VKS or even IT departments, they need to hold one-time online meetings and webinars through a browser No client application installation is required, work in browsers other than Chrome is not guaranteed, especially on mobile devices. The functionality is wider than that of class 1 solutions, but limited by the capabilities laid down by browser developers (Google, Mozilla, Apple), there is no way to call any other VKS systems	Adobe Connect, BigBlueButton, Jitsi Usually these are universities that do not have the funds to buy cloud subscriptions, so they deploy free solutions themselves, often integration with learning management systems (LMS) Features are the same as in cloud implementation
3	[[Microsoft Teams	Microsoft Teams]], Zoom A wide variety of businesses and organizations, both in size and in areas of activity The functionality is not limited to browser standards or capabilities. It is possible to hold large conferences for more than 200 participants, display more than 25 participants on the screen, fully use PCs and mobile devices as endpoints. Poor video quality (usually 360 p) for most users, a gateway is required to communicate with third-party VKS solutions, limited integration with corporate systems, there are risks of data leakage, inaccessibility of the service, sanctions restrictions	TrueConf Server, Skype for Business Enterprise Big Business, production, energy, power structures and the public sector around the world Features are the same, as in cloud implementation, but there are no compromises in quality, safety and integration capabilities. It is possible to build a private VKS cloud for companies or a national cloud for operators. Low cost of scaling and low cost of hardware

Nadezhda Alyabyeva, Marketing Director of SPIRIT and VideoMost, proposed a classification of VKS systems, which can be considered a common denominator of previous approaches. The expert divided the VKS into hardware and software, of which the latter are with access "from the cloud" of the developer/provider or with the installation of the customer's own infrastructure (on-premium) inside. She noted that private users and representatives of the SMB segment use, as a rule, free and cloud VKS, and large corporate customers prefer to buy paid tariffs for cloud services in addition to already used hardware video conferencing systems.

The largest corporate and state customers care about the security of information and user data, so they are ready to install the VKS server in their own infrastructure, adds Nadezhda Alyabyeva. "Some of these customers continue to use previously purchased hardware VKS, and to expand the communication infrastructure they use software products that support integration with hardware VKS clients"

The usefulness and prevalence of the combined approach to VKS - hardware solution + web - is also confirmed by Boris Popov (Vinteo).

It is profitable to proceed from the complexity of infrastructure and long-term plans for the development of networks, says the expert. - Some customers effectively use a combination of solutions, when large-scale conference calls are held on a professional VKS system, and local meetings, with a small number of users, are held in web conferencing mode

Customer Portrait

According to TAdviser, the bulk of VKS implementations are in the state segment and education. Our experts agreed with this assessment, but supplemented the overall picture with details. A significant place is occupied in the market by the corporate sector in the person of medium and large businesses, especially companies with an extensive branch system. In the industry context, the most common VKS are introduced, in addition to the state and educational segments of the economy, in the oil and gas, banking, transport and energy sectors, and recently retail has been actively purchasing VKS solutions.

Boris Popov (Vinteo) states that 80% of his company's client base is state customers. And he recalls that large companies in the commercial sector of the economy actively use VKS systems to exchange information and control regional divisions, operational-situation communication sessions, video surveillance.

It is also worth noting the telemedicine industry, where the main requirements for VKS systems are stable operation in multilateral communication mode, high quality and image detail, especially in the case of surgical operations, says Boris Popov. - It uses the ultra-high resolution video standard 4K or 8K - it allows you to transmit color, the smallest details of the image as clearly as possible, and, for example, broadcast the layout with a large number of subscribers or windows and even surgical operations

It is worth clarifying that the bulk of the projects, information about which is contained in the TAdviser database, have been completed in Russia (94%). Approximately 43% of them are sold in companies of the Central Federal District. 16% falls on the Volga region, 12.5% - on the North-West Federal District. The cities - the leaders of VKS implementations - are presented in the diagram below.

Drivers and barriers

All experts recognize the high potential and growth rates of the Russian VKS market achieved in the first wave of the pandemic, and the preservation of high development indicators in the second. Most note import substitution as one of the main points of growth, but some experts also have a certain skepticism in the real successes of this direction of market development. Other points of growth of the VKS market: movement towards the creation of a stack of interconnected, integrated domestic software products, further development of functionality taking into account the needs of Russian customers. Remote work of employees and an increase in the volume of online communication are still an important driver of development.

Irina Stepanova, head of video solutions and accessories for collaboration, Logitech, notes the continued growth in the number of online negotiations and the transition of employees to a hybrid work format. If in 2020 companies more equipped individual workplaces for remote work from home, then in the current year they began to actively equip office space with VKS solutions, she notes.

Companies continue to reformat their offices to new realities, focusing on a hybrid work format. Today we see that organizations systematically equip the VKS not only with negotiation, but also with other office spaces - for example, recreation areas - the expert adds to the picture.

The growth points of the Russian VKS market, according to Irina Stepanova, are equipping educational and medical institutions with video conferencing. Educational institutions equip classrooms and classrooms for distance learning, and purchase webcams and headsets for remote students and teachers. The use of VKS in the field of education goes beyond ordinary academic studies, she emphasizes. The expert notes that the company has cases for installing video conferencing equipment even in sports schools and studios. During the construction of new medical centers as part of the implementation of the presidential program on telemedicine, a certain number of video cameras are immediately laid in halls and premises. In general, the VKS segment is becoming today the most effective tool among various IT solutions for interaction and setting up working communications, says Irina Stepanova.

As for barriers: before the pandemic, companies made large investments in traditional-style VKS systems, which did not allow contacting external counterparties, providing only internal corporate communications. Given the scale of these financial investments and the difficult current economic situation, corporations are now not just replaced with new solutions, so the update of the used VKS equipment is not so active, the market has so far taken a wait-and-see attitude, says Irina Stepanova.

On the other hand, the experience of using budget equipment by companies does not allow them to receive all the advantages of video conferencing due to the low quality of video and sound. This can spoil the overall impression of using VKS as such and lead to disappointment in the technology. Therefore, as a vendor, we try to offer the market solutions that are optimal for combining the cost and quality of equipment without losing this quality, the expert explains.

Dmitry Odintsov (TrueConf) assesses the market potential as huge. The expert considers import substitution to be the main point of growth, and a special driver is the choice of software products by customers instead of "iron" VKS.

In general, the drivers of the current year do not differ from the previous one, but in 2021 they began to punish more for non-compliance with import substitution when purchasing VKS, up to the cancellation of tenders - says Dmitry Odintsov.

The main negative trend in the market is that many users are not ready to accept VKS as the main means for communication purely psychologically, as indicated by turned off cameras during conferences, even public ones.

The market also slows down the development of local VKS solutions that are not competitive in the international market, the expert believes. "The goal of such manufacturers is to capture a narrow segment of the domestic VKS market, while the quality of the product is best evidenced by its export potential and customers abroad. Especially in industries with serious information security standards - in the government, law enforcement agencies and the financial sector, "explains Dmitry Odintsov.

The increased impact of import substitution is also stated by Nadezhda Pchelintseva, director of the Networks and Telecommunications Equipment department at Marvel Distribution. She notes an increase in the number of tenders on which there is no equipment for foreign vendors, and recalls the pandemic that is spurring demand for VKS.

Due to the pandemic, remote operation is widespread, so VKS systems do not stop developing due to unrelenting demand, says Nadezhda Pchelintseva. - The main growth points are personal systems for use in the home office, as well as equipment for small meeting rooms (the so-called huddle-room for 3-6 people), which were a direct consequence of the hybrid format of work and communication between employees in the office and remotely

Stanislav Iodkovsky (IVA Technologies) speaks about the systematic strengthening of the action of import substitution drivers this year and the support of domestic developers from the state. At the same time, he notes a negative point - an insufficient number of domestic hardware platforms.

State customers and companies with state participation are recommended to switch to Russian equipment, but it is simply not yet. This makes it difficult to port Russian aerospace forces to domestic platforms, the expert explains.

The growing role of the import substitution driver is also recognized by Boris Popov (Vinteo), but notes that this is not the only point of growth. The speaker notes the importance of joint work of vendors on a stack of domestic solutions, the addition of VKS systems with unique functionality developed for Russian customers.

In 2021, import substitution reached a new level, questions were raised at the state level about the support of domestic IT market players, the digitalization of education, medicine, various industry companies and the transition to remote work in constant mode came to the fore, "explains Boris Popov. - However, in general, the main workhorse of most video selectors of large customers is still the classic telepresence class VKS. Although it is replenished with new functionality and also moves towards the mass market, when it becomes available to every person

Boris Popov considers a negative trend in the market to be the intentional leveling of the technological difference between professional-class solutions and web conferences by suppliers, with an emphasis on price differences to promote their products.

This seriously spoils the image of domestic manufacturers, and often leads to unreasonable spending of budget funds, without solving the tasks set by customers to modernize VKS networks, he explains.

To minimize such situations, it is important to test the decision before concluding a contract, says Boris Popov. This work includes the approval of the program and methods for testing the VKS system, conducting a full pilot test of typical customer VKS nodes (central server, subject server, control server, etc.). Our expert recalls the importance of preliminary testing of the purchased VKS solution in the real network of a geographically distributed organization.

Mikhail Nikiforov, an expert on video conferencing solutions at the CROC IT company, continuing to compare the situation on the VKS market in 2020 and 2021, notes a surge in customer demand during the initial period of the pandemic, especially for rapidly deployed cloud video conferencing services for remote work. This year, the situation has changed somewhat.

Today we see a deferred demand for VKS solutions for equipping meeting rooms in offices. This is due to the fact that many companies are switching to a hybrid work format. Some of the staff returned to the office, some work from home and the need arose for customers to build new ways of interacting teams. Therefore, in 2021, we see an increased demand for solutions for equipping meeting rooms with professional means of audio and video communications, the expert explains.

At the same time, the widespread use of cloud services has stimulated the emergence on the market of specialized hardware devices for working with cloud platforms, says Mikhail Nikiforov. These are various hardware codecs that provide professional sound and image quality in cloud services familiar to the user. Such devices can be either universal or created to work with a specific application - Zoom or Microsoft Teams, he says.

Nadezhda Alyabyeva (SPIRIT and VideoMost) notes the growth of the Russian VKS market in general and the cloud segment in particular. However, its assessment of the success of import substitution stands out from the general background.

Import substitution is still difficult. Large customers are in no hurry to abandon Microsoft and Cisco even under pressure, the expert states. - The development of the Russian VKS market is hindered by the insufficient desire and readiness of customers to refuse to purchase foreign VKS software and hardware, to switch to Russian products. And this despite the fact that such products as VideoMost are able not only to replace foreign platforms and services, but also to provide full integration with them, as well as with office software. This interoperability significantly reduces budgets for purchasing, installing, and developing customer communications infrastructure

Dynamics estimates

Experts, as expected, characterize the dynamics of the market development as positive - both in 2020 and in 2021, although they differ in the nuances of the assessment.

Dmitry Odintsov (TrueConf) believes that for manufacturers of VKS solutions, the growth rate this year will remain the same as in the past, but for the market as a whole, a decrease is noticeable.

This is due to the fact that all emergency needs of customers were closed in 2020 with the advent of quarantines and lockdowns, he explains.

Stanislav Iodkovsky (IVA Technologies) assumes that the dynamics of 2020-2021. will not differ much from 2019-2020, the growth rate will remain at the level of 15-20%. But this is the average market figure, it is immediately stipulated, individual players can show other results that differ both in the larger and smaller directions. In general, the new wave of the pandemic did not and will not bring any noticeable changes to the market, Stanislav Iodkovsky believes.

A new wave of the pandemic has become a fact confirming the need for the VKS as an effective working tool that does not interrupt business during a pandemic and lockdown, the expert noted. - Last year's experience of the mass transition to a remote work format was very useful, since it made it possible to transfer communications to online almost without problems and any changes

How explosive - hundreds of percent - Nadezhda Alyabyeva (SPIRIT and VideoMost) estimates the growth of the VKS market in the spring of 2020, in 2021 she states that the growth trend remains, but already calm, systemic.

VKS is certainly a completely necessary working tool today, "the expert notes.

At the same time, Nadezhda Alyabyeva believes that the new wave of the pandemic has given the VKS market a powerful impetus for development.

Now vendors and developers, in order to stay in their market place, need not just run faster, but turn on sprint speeds. Customers have become more demanding, but at the same time the overall solvency of many has decreased, the expert states.

Specific uses

At its core, the VKS is a universal tool ready to perform tasks in any field of activity, specifics - in use, in the tasks being solved, as experts note.

We can say that VKS products are universal, because functionally users will not see the difference, but there are also areas with specific requirements - for example, telemedicine. There, for remote examinations or surgical broadcasts, you need high picture quality and fault tolerance - notes Dmitry Odintsov (TrueConf).

Nadezhda Alyabyeva (SPIRIT and VideoMost) also confirms a certain specificity in the use of VKS in such areas as medicine, education, financial and state segment, but in general the essence of VKS and the application scenario does not change.

VKS are becoming unified communications in every sense, including industries and areas of activity, "the expert says.

By and large, vendors produce universal VKS solutions, says Nadezhda Pchelintseva (Marvel Distribution), and a few special solutions - for example, for the banking sector, who know how to work with biometric data - are rather an exception to the rules. At the same time, almost all manufacturers of VKS systems are trying to show how their products can be used in a specific industry to help their partners position the equipment correctly, the expert states.

Boris Popov (Vinteo) recognizes the need to customize the VKS for industry requests and customer tasks, and notes a shift to the field of mobile content as a general specificity.

Denis Ageev, Director for Development and Production of Virtualization and Video Conferencing Systems at JSC NII Scale Concern Avtomatika of Rostec State Corporation, notes the specifics of using the cloud/hardware solution in the context of the division of the economy into a commercial segment and a state one.

The commercial segment of the economy goes to the cloud, the demand for the use of VKS software products is growing, and the public sector prefers trusted VKS hardware and software systems - Denis Ageev notes.

Basic and Optional Customer VKS Requirements

The main requirements of Russian customers for video conferencing, noted by our experts: intuitive interface, ease of operation, reliability, rich functionality, good technical support, feedback from the vendor, well-thought-out logistics of equipment supplies.

Irina Stepanova (Logitech) notes that along with the standard technological requirements for equipment for the quality of video communication, modern users have additional requests for convenience, versatility and ease of use.

In this regard, Logitech, in addition to various systems for premises of different sizes with identical control, has a large number of accessories that make it possible to facilitate the launch of conferences as much as possible, organize wires in the room, monitor and update software remotely, the expert says. - You can even control all the components of the room - for example, video and lighting from one device

The expert adds that many companies pay great attention to design and color scheme - it is important for customers that the color of the installed VKS equipment is organically combined with the color scheme of the room.

Therefore, when developing its solutions, Logitech continues to focus on their design, including offering video systems in two colors, which meets the basic needs of corporate customers in terms of improving user experience and providing comfort, explains Irina Stepanova. - In this regard, I would also like to note that Logitech carefully works out logistics and ensures the quick delivery of its equipment to customers from any region of Russia, cooperating with the largest distributors. This makes it possible to maintain large stocks not only in Russia and the CIS, but also in most countries of the world

In terms of the basic functionality of VKS solutions, Nadezhda Alyabyeva (SPIRIT and VideoMost) calls convenient authorization, high quality voice and video in multi-user video communication mode, the ability to demonstrate the screen during a conference from any device, recording sessions, quick access from any device and from any network, fault tolerance. Optional features: an additional arsenal of collaboration tools, various video layouts, "enhancers" of the user's appearance, the ability to replace the background, integration with the messenger, with third-party systems and applications, setting user rights and usage policies, as well as the ability to work in closed networks.

It is important for some customers that the product is not only installed in the organization's infrastructure, but also works only on the local network. And, of course, stable work and the possibility of scaling are important, since the number of jobs that need to be equipped with access to the VKS is constantly growing - the expert adds.

Dmitry Odintsov (TrueConf) states that, as well as around the world, in the first place among Russian customers is the ratio of the cost of introducing and maintaining VKS with the quality and functionality of the system. The expert attributed the ability to work in a closed network to basic requirements, and not to additional ones. In addition, the expert considers the main characteristic to be the presence of a software client for all platforms, including Russian operating systems. Among the additional requirements, Dmitry Odintsov named support for 4K Ultra HD and work with browsers. The main requirement for VKS is a fairly high image and sound quality, notes Nadezhda Pchelintseva (Marvel Distribution), so the basic ones are the presence of an HD camera, active noise cancellation and a large viewing angle when it comes to meeting rooms of significant size. The expert emphasizes that additional VKS capabilities often become competitive advantages.

Vendors offer many different add-ons that can compete: sound source recognition and tracking systems to focus on who is talking at the moment, background setup, lighting compensation, etc., explains Nadezhda Pchelintseva. - Various options are in demand for managing meeting rooms using presence sensors and software that is responsible for booking. This allows you to use resources efficiently - users receive a notification which room is free, save electricity - VKS automatically turns off if the meeting did not meet at the appointed time

Boris Popov (Vinteo) named among the three main requirements:

• Layout Designer and Layout Management Mode
• synchronous translation functionality integrated into the VKS server;
• cloud service like Zoom.

The demanded functionality is already "typical" broadcasts to different platforms and recording meetings, connecting subscribers via WEB-RTC, SIP and H.323, connecting video terminals from various manufacturers, moderating participants by the server administrator and conference moderator, branding interfaces - the expert added.

VKS innovations

There were no big innovations in the 2021 VKS market, experts say. At the same time, Russian developers, like the world's leading ones, are constantly developing products and adding new options.

Denis Ageev (JSC "NII Scale" Concern "Automation" of the State Corporation Rostec), highlighted the active development of his own built-in messengers by vendors, which will make it possible to avoid using open systems and ensure corporate security.

Boris Popov (Vinteo) called the emergence of a synchronous translation system integrated into the VKS software server an important innovation for the market.

Stanislav Iodkovsky (IVA Technologies) mentioned the use of facial recognition technologies, noise cancellation and mathematical boards for online education.

Revolutionary functionality for this year was not presented, rather an improvement and expansion of the existing one, work on greater stability of products to provide VKS to more users - notes Nadezhda Alyabyeva (SPIRIT and VideoMost).

Cloud VKS services

Cloud VKS services are not yet as widespread in the Russian videoconferencing market as in developed markets in Western countries. The size of this market segment is still small, but research firm J'son & Partners Consulting (Jason & Partners Consulting) predicts its growth at 15% until 2025.

Stanislav Iodkovsky (IVA Technologies) notes that the demand for cloud VKS services is growing at a good pace, especially in the SMB segment. This is indirectly confirmed by the developers, in whose product portfolios the presence of a cloud VKS service has become the de facto standard, the expert notes. He states that growth is facilitated, among other things, by fairly well-developed communication channels, while noting that the VKS system from the cloud is less demanding for communication channels and endpoints.

The cloud approach allows you to provide good savings, both on the VKS itself, for which you have to pay only on the fact of subscription, and on the computing infrastructure that the service provider provides in such a model, the expert concludes.

Nadezhda Pchelintseva (Marvel Distribution) states that the leaders of the cloud segment of the Russian VKS market are Zoom and MS Teams, and the rest of the players are in a catch-up position.

Most likely, the number of players in this market will not increase, since even equipment manufacturers offer boxed products that are already tuned to work with leaders, says Nadezhda Pchelintseva. - The market will be saturated at the expense of organizations that have not yet purchased licenses of this or that service, and therefore the necessary equipment. At the same time, about 30-40% of companies either create or already have their own VKS solutions based on the existing infrastructure

Dmitry Odintsov (TrueConf) also admits that Zoom and MS Teams have already closed the main market needs for cloud video conferencing services.

There is no point in cloning cloud products, and market players may not have enough funds to create and maintain an analogue of such a scale as Zoom, the expert notes.

VKS budgets

Budgets allocated to IT are always sensitive. Not everyone is always ready to answer it, no matter what area it comes to, and VKS budgets are no exception. Nevertheless, all our experts admitted that budgets for VKS are growing, and many are introducing video conferencing with the expectation of remote or hybrid collaboration after the end of the pandemic.

Stanislav Iodkovsky (IVA Technologies) states that companies have "tried" video communication technologies, understood their need and effectiveness in modern realities.

Nadezhda Pchelintseva (Marvel Distribution) notes a calmer growth rate of budgets on the VKS market in comparison with the previous year, again emphasizing the positive role of import substitution.

In 2020, there was an explosive increase in the allocation of money for equipping offices and personal workplaces with VKS systems and devices, and now we see a positive trend, but it has a much calmer pace, the expert explains. - This is largely due to the fact that in the budgetary sphere, among companies with state participation, import solutions are being replaced with Russian ones

Denis Ageev (JSC "NII Scale" Concern "Automation" of Rostec State Corporation) also speaks about the great influence of the processes of replacing Western software on the increase in VKS budgets in state structures.

Most of the VKS systems in these organizations were built on the basis of products from Western manufacturers, now there is an active transition to domestic solutions - the expert explains.

Domestic vs imported

According to TAdviser, most of the VKS implementations in Russia are based on domestic solutions. We asked our experts if there was a turning point in the minds of customers or whether the largest business structures still prefer to purchase and use Western video conferencing systems. Most experts believe that positive qualitative changes in the consciousness of the Russian customer have occurred, but Western solutions are still popular in the business environment.

Boris Popov (Vinteo) has no doubt that the changes that have taken place over the past year in the attitude of customers towards Russian solutions are obvious.

In April 2020, many drew attention to foreign-made VKS equipment, with the help of which presidential meetings were held, and then experts denied the possibility of fully replacing imported VKS systems with Russian ones, Boris Popov recalled. - However, already in April 2021, when information appeared about the possible refusal of the American Zoom system from working with the Russian public sector, almost all departments reported the successful use of domestic solutions

Western systems are still very popular, notes Nadezhda Alyabyeva (SPIRIT and VideoMost), and the belief that all high-quality products are only foreign is also present among decision-makers, but domestic customers are increasingly looking at Russian software.

The popularity of Western solutions is also confirmed by Nadezhda Pchelintseva (Marvel Distribution). She states that if a commercial company or organization does not have regulatory restrictions, then the choice is usually made in favor of import solutions. As for the Russian VKS systems, any concerns and doubts of the customer are resolved using preliminary testing and pilot implementations. Usually this helps to accept products of Russian origin with great enthusiasm, the expert notes.

Stanislav Iodkovsky (IVA Technologies) says with confidence that a qualitative turning point in relation to Russian VKS solutions has come.

Domestic decisions are now not inferior to foreign ones, but in some ways even surpass them, "says Stanislav Iodkovsky. - In addition, Russian developers understand the specifics of the market much better, from the peculiarities of culture to the established business practices. Thus, they are much closer to the customer than large corporations, can "hear" and implement the specifics that the market needs

Competitiveness of Russian solutions

TAdviser asked experts whether domestic VKS solutions are able to compete with Western products without political support for import substitution, solely due to their functional characteristics. All answers can be reduced to a common denominator: yes, domestic VKS solutions have become competitive in themselves. Dmitry Odintsov (TrueConf) unequivocally believes that Russian VKS systems are ready to completely replace foreign counterparts.

Our customers note that migration from Western products to domestic products is almost imperceptible to them. And Russian hardware VKS terminals for them are even easier to operate and more reliable in terms of protection than foreign ones - it complements.

As of today, we can say that import substitution of software in the VKS segment has been completed, notes Boris Popov (Vinteo). Russian VKS software products in the telepresence class support all generally recognized international industry standards, including SIP and H.323 protocols, and are not inferior in their consumer properties to reference foreign solutions. They are compatible with equipment and software of foreign vendors, are easily integrated into existing networks, and are successfully supplemented with their own functionality. At the same time, Russian professional VKS systems cost up to 30-40% cheaper at the time of purchase and up to 50% at the stages of operation and maintenance, says Boris Popov.

In general, domestic VKS solutions fully compete with Western ones in the standard part of the functionality characteristic of professional products, and also offer their own unique functionality focused on the requests of Russian customers, he adds.

Stanislav Iodkovsky (IVA Technologies) in his response analyzed the situation in a global context. The customer needs a comprehensive solution that can most fully close all communication tasks in the organization, he recalled. That is why large international developers of such systems managed to gain a large market share - solutions from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, etc., were initially tailored for a wide range of tasks. However, the expert believes, globalization and exponential growth played a cruel joke with these companies: by betting on versatility, they distanced themselves from end customers.

When the excitement subsided, it turned out that universal Western VKS products do not always and do not quite fit the tasks of customers from the b2b or b2g sector, who impose certain requirements on the functionality of the system, on its safety, "Stanislav Iodkovsky adds to the picture. - For example, a rather significant advantage of some domestic VKS systems is that a certain number of security solutions have been created and successfully used in state and corporate structures in Russia - crypto routers, VPNs, and not all Western products can boast of stable work with them

Denis Ageev (JSC "NII Scale" Concern "Automation" of Rostec State Corporation) agrees with his colleagues. He notes that domestic VKS systems correspond to Western counterparts in terms of functionality. An additional convenience for the Russian customer is localized service and technical support, as well as the ability to customize systems to the customer's requirements.

The future of the VKS market

Thinking about the future is always a little disingenuous, since no one is able to look into it, but interesting and even useful, because they wake up the imagination. In their forecasts, our experts emphasize the great potential for further development of the Russian VKS market by domestic vendors, the perspective of the trend towards unified communications, cloud services and at the same time draw a line under this review of the Russian VKS market.

Nadezhda Alyabyeva (SPIRIT and VideoMost) stated that the Russian VKS market has its own specifics, but the overall development corresponds to global trends, and online in Russia is developed no less, and somewhere even more and better than in Europe.

If the Russian customer trusts Russian developers more, then together we will be able to very soon create VKS and UC products that are in no way inferior to foreign counterparts and ensure the independence of the domestic market from foreign vendors, the expert summed up.

Stanislav Iodkovsky (IVA Technologies) noted that although the number of projects using domestic VKS systems has increased significantly over the past year or two, the growth potential in this market has not been exhausted. There is still much to be done, the expert states, while it must be borne in mind that the requirements on the part of customers for unification, interfaces, system capabilities have seriously increased and continue to grow.

VKS and unified communications are one of the directions where leading domestic solutions can compete with Western ones in objective parameters, without regard to import substitution, "concludes Stanislav Iodkovsky. "Moreover, some Russian developments are already in no way inferior to foreign ones, and somewhere they exceed them due to focusing on specific tasks without the need for universalism for the world market."

Nadezhda Pchelintseva (Marvel Distribution) predicts that the emphasis on import-substituted products will be even stronger, so we can expect both the development of domestic VKS solutions and the emergence of projects for the deployment of Russian systems in new industries where the solutions of foreign vendors previously prevailed.

Denis Ageev (JSC "NII" Scale "Concern" Automation "State Corporation Rostec) is confident that the market will develop. The public sector will continue to tend to build its own video conferencing infrastructure based on Russian solutions and hardware and software systems, and the commercial market will increase the use of cloud technologies.

Mikhail Nikiforov (CROC) believes that many companies want to use services similar to Zoom or Cisco Webex, but deployed on their own infrastructure, and not from the cloud, since in this case all traffic remains in the customer's network, which guarantees its security.

Such solutions are available today only from Russian manufacturers, in terms of quality and functionality they are no longer inferior to foreign counterparts and can become a worthy alternative for customers, says Mikhail Nikiforov. - However, domestic manufacturers are not yet ready to completely close the demand in the VKS market, since today they are focused on software development, and hardware solutions for video conferencing are still available mainly from foreign vendors, and this is a promising niche for our market

And Boris Popov (Vinteo) is the most concise in his forecast estimates of the future of the Russian VKS market - most likely, small companies will leave the market, 2-3 monopolists will remain, and Dmitry Odintsov (TrueConf), who assesses the future simply, in a word - positively.

2020

The most popular VKS systems and leading vendors for October 2020

The TAdviser database continues to be actively replenished with new projects. As of October 2020, it contains information on 4257 implementations of video conferencing systems (VKS). The main part of such projects (more than 4 thousand) falls on Russia.

According to TAdviser statistics, video conferencing is most often implemented by government and social structures. They account for 825 projects. The top three industries also included Education and Science (619 projects) and Information Technologies (350 projects).

It can be stated that the Russian market for VKS systems has been "captured" by two domestic vendors - TrueConf and Spirit. Their solutions account for about 70% of all implemented projects recorded by TAdviser.

For the period from 2005 to October 2020, 1503 projects based on VKS solutions developed by TrueConf were noted in the TAdviser database. Spirit's solution has been implemented 1,475 times over the same period.

The most commonly deployed systems include TrueConf Server (1484 implementations), Video conference (1475), Mind (567), Skype for Business (118), and Cisco TelePresence (66). Other products in the TAdviser database account for 547 projects.

The most popular VKS systems and leading vendors for July 2020

Another section of the statistics of the TAdviser database showed that as of July 2020, the portal accumulated data on 3.7 thousand projects for introducing video conferencing systems. Most of them fall on projects completed in Russia (more than 3.5 thousand).

Among the VKS systems presented on the Russian market, the leader is the Video conference solution. For the period from 2005 to July 2020, information on 1276 implementations of this product was published on the TAdviser portal.

The top five most commonly deployed systems also included TrueConf Server (1,197 implementations), Mind (567), Skype for Business (118), and Cisco TelePresence (66).

If we consider not specific products, but all solutions for video conferencing of individual developers, then the position of companies again repeats the Top 5 systems. The leader among vendors, as of July 27, 2020, is Video conference (Spirit). Slightly fewer projects are based on TrueConf VKS solutions . This is followed by Mind, Microsoft, and Cisco.

It is worth remembering that the TAdviser database mainly collects information about open projects, which is distributed by suppliers or customers of VKS products, and is also published in open sources on the Internet, including on electronic trading platforms.

The most popular VKS systems and leading vendors for March 2020

As of March 2020, the TAdviser project database accumulated data on approximately 3.4 thousand implementations of video conferencing systems, of which 3 thousand were performed in Russia. The leader among the most frequently deployed systems was the domestic TrueConf Server solution. This product was used in almost every third VKS project known to TAdviser.

In addition to TrueConf Server, the Top 5 VKS systems include solutions from Video conference, Mind, Skype for Business, Cisco TelePresence.

If you look at all video conferencing solutions for specific developers, then the position of companies repeats the Top 5 systems. The leader among vendors, as of March 1, 2020, is TrueConf, followed by "Video conference" (Spirit) with a slight lag. The rest of the positions were taken by Mind, Microsoft, and Cisco.

It should be borne in mind that the TAdviser database mainly collects information about open projects, which is distributed by suppliers or customers of VKS products, and is also published in open sources on the Internet.

2019: Video conferencing cloud services sales - $3.3 billion

According to the Gartner report published on June 2, 2020, in 2020, the growth of end-user spending on cloud video conferencing solutions will reach $4.1 billion, which is 24.3% higher compared to 2019, in which expenses amounted to $3.3 billion.

The demand for cloud video conferencing solutions will continue to grow throughout 2020 thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, the growth rate will decrease due to a certain saturation of the market - by this time, many who switch to remote work will already acquire solutions.

In 2020, the segment of cloud solutions for video conferencing will become the second fastest growth in the unified communications (UC) market after the segment of cloud telephony, the volume of which should be $16.8 billion. In general, consumer spending on united communications in 2020 will decrease by 2.7%, after which, in 2021, they will begin to grow again.

Investments in cloud video conferencing solutions will mitigate the fall in the united communications market, which, in turn, will be dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of which there has been a massive transition to remote interaction, "commented Megan Fernandez, senior analyst at Gartner.

Gartner predicts that physical meetings will account for just 25% of all corporate meetings by 2024. For comparison, before the spread of the coronavirus, physical meetings occupied 60%. However, the pandemic is not the only reason for the transition to online. Some role in this is played by the arrival in jobs of a new generation of younger employees who require more flexible working conditions.^[2]

2016-2017

The volume of the VKS market is decreasing due to the growth of demand for software solutions

In 2016, the Russian market for video conferencing systems in monetary terms showed negative dynamics. There are several main reasons for this. Companies optimized IT budgets, purchases of expensive VKS hardware systems decreased, while the demand for more affordable software solutions increased. In 2017, some market participants manage to achieve growth.

In terms of dynamics, people begin to actively use video communication, so the VKS market is growing rapidly in pieces, that is, the number of downloaded applications installed on smartphones and PCs, and in monetary terms, on the contrary, the VKS market is slightly decreasing, like the entire communication market. And in the near future, in monetary terms, the VKS market will not grow, like the entire communication market, since there is a revolution - software goes into the clouds, everyone is occupied by free instant messengers, "said TAdviser, Andrey Sviridenko chairman of the board. Spirit

He also recalled that according to Wainhouse Research, the volume of the Russian VKS market is at $200 million per year.

We agree with this assessment, since we studied the Russian Aerospace Forces market through the prism of state tenders, the information on which is public, "Spirit explained.

At the same time, according to TrueConf, in 2016 the amount of transactions in the VKS market did not exceed 2 billion rubles. The company notes the contraction of the market due to a decrease in the volume of purchases of VKS hardware systems and suggests that by the end of 2017 the market volume will decrease.

But this is normal, since video conferencing, like telephony, once becomes a mass service that creates demand only for affordable or, at all, free solutions, "said Yegor Voitanik, head of the communications department at TrueConf, in a conversation with TAdviser.

Denis Chernoskov, Director of the System Integration Department of Korus Consulting Group, also feels negative dynamics:

I can't name the exact numbers. This is due to the fact that in the last 2-3 years, most projects of the Russian VKS market have been "closed" completely or in terms of solutions and/or financial parameters. According to feelings and some external features (migration of specialists, the departure of some significant experts of the Aerospace Forces working in the vendor company in system integration), the Aerospace Forces market shows negative dynamics, there are no expectations and reasons for improving the situation yet.

Leonid Zhestev, Leading Engineer of the Multimedia Systems and Video Conferencing Department of Lanit-Integration, told TAdviser that the video conferencing market is stagnating as IT budgets remain in an optimized state. At the same time, the video conferencing itself, although it has become somewhat more optimal in price, still has a fairly high cost.

Despite the active transformation of service delivery models and licensing systems, the market remains at about one point in terms of volumes, with a tendency to a certain decrease in monetary terms, "added Leonid Zhestev.

According to Vladislav Peregudov, chief project engineer of the Asteros group, the situation in the domestic VKS market is largely similar to the situation in the Russian economy as a whole and in the IT market in particular. Manufacturers are trying to restructure the sales strategy to a new target audience focused on low-cost and all-in-one solutions. To stimulate demand growth, vendors are developing solutions in a low price range, the basic functionality of which is already largely comparable to hi-end products.

In the context of an unstable economic situation, companies that managed to diversify their business strategies were able to maintain the volume of implementation of VKS projects and/or achieve sustainable growth. For example, projects for huddle rooms do not always correspond to the business model of system integrators. In the lines of manufacturers, there is another type of solutions (hi-end) with high market conditions, which may be of interest to system integrators, including Asteros, "Vladislav Peregudov explained to TAdviser.

The company Polymedia , noting the low activity in the VKS market in 2016, speaks of a completely opposite picture in 2017.

Many requests, a number of large projects are in the works, there are already groundwork for 2018. We associate this with stabilization in the economic and political spheres, exchange rates have become more predictable, there is an opportunity to expand the planning horizon, "Maxim Umetbaev, head of LED and VC at Polymedia, told TAdviser.

Softline is also talking about the rapid growth in the number of projects.

During the year, the number of such projects in Softline increased by almost 100%. VKS has ceased to be the "technology of the future." Now this is an effective tool for solving applied problems - such as reducing travel costs, - said Maxim Kirsanov, head of the telecommunications solutions department at Softline.

Alexey Gromakov, Director of the Department for Development and Management of Solutions at NVision Group, estimates the growth of the VKS market in 2016-2017 at the level of 3-5%:

NVision Group is introducing VKS as part of complex projects. We have little data for analysis, but I will assume that on the scale of the entire market, the service, due to its high cost and slow payback, showed modest growth at the level of 3-5%. I think that this year the forecast will be about the same. Perhaps in 2017 there will be a slight increase due to the fact that the VKS can move to the status of support for video communication in unified communications.

The main drivers and barriers of the Russian VKS system market

The main drivers of the domestic videoconferencing market are migration to software VKS, which can also be provided using the SaaS model, the development of unified communications systems and the aging process of existing equipment. At the same time, there are so-called immortal market drivers, such as the desire of companies and government agencies to increase the speed of decision-making, the desire to optimize costs and increase efficiency.

Andrei Sviridenko, chairman of the Spirit board, names the import substitution process as a nominal driver:

But this is a towing driver, although there is a certain movement forward. The remaining drivers are the departure of the VKS into the clouds, the transition from the implementation of video communication at the hardware level to the cloud service level

Maxim Kirsanov, head of the telecommunications solutions department at Softline, refers to the recently adopted law on telemedicine as market drivers, which involves the active use of VKS solutions.

But the main driver, in my opinion, will be a new generation of people for whom video is an absolutely natural way of communicating with each other. Young employees expect deep integration of video messages into the corporate environment, and companies will be obliged to ensure this in order to make communication between such employees effective, he said.

Denis Chernoskov, Director of the System Integration Department of Korus Consulting Group of Companies, among the market drivers names the development and distribution of systems in which VKS is an integral part. Among them are unified communications systems, as well as other comprehensive projects to modernize the company's IT infrastructure.

Egor Voitanik, head of the TrueConf communications department, says that one of the possible drivers for the market may be the understanding of large corporations and organizations that the fashionable topic of instant messengers without their own video is not so effective.

Mikhail Nikiforov, head of video conferencing at CROC, and Leonid Zhestev, leading engineer of the Multimedia Systems and Video Conferencing department at Lanit-Integration, agree that the market driver is the use of VKS solutions based on the SaaS model.

Maxim Umetbaev, head of LED and VC at Polymedia, believes that the aspirations of companies and government agencies to increase the speed of decision-making, the desire to optimize costs and increase efficiency are immortal drivers of the UC and VC systems market. Also, the very expansion of the functionality of VKS systems stimulates demand. Such processes as import substitution and the creation of a register of Russian software support Russian manufacturers.

In addition, according to him, vendors are adapting the pricing policy and product line to new economic realities in the Russian market. There are interesting promotional programs to modernize the customer's existing equipment or migrate from the platforms of other vendors.

Also among the drivers, he names the process of moral and physical aging of existing equipment, the need to modernize and expand the existing fleet.

Vladislav Peregudov, chief project engineer of the Asteros group, believes that both the driver and the barrier to the development of the VKS market in Russia is an unstable economic situation.

Reducing customer solvency forces manufacturers to revise pricing policies, develop flexible terms for purchase, and finally develop a new class of solutions that combines everything you need "in one box." At the same time, possible restrictions on visiting some countries can be overcome using the VKS - not just a communications service, but in fact - the safest mode of transport today, "he said.

In general, the main barriers to the market include a reduction in customer IT budgets and a high cost of products for large-scale implementation of VKS, poor quality of communication channels in the regions, as well as the development of mobile technologies and applications offering free video call services.

The unstable economic situation, the high cost of VKS solutions and the conservatism of customers who still prefer to create their own VKS infrastructure are the main barriers to the development of the Russian market for VKS systems, says Mikhail Nikiforov, head of video conferencing at CROC.

Leonid Zhestev, leading engineer of the Multimedia Systems and Video Conferencing department of Lanit-Integration, says that the market is full of competitive offers, but the customer is not ready to spend impressive amounts on the purchase of an initial fleet of infrastructure equipment and licenses.

Denis Chernoskov, director of the system integration department of Korus Consulting Group, notes that there are many barriers, and they all lie on the surface:

This is the state of the economy and sanctions that hinder the promotion of decisions by market leaders such as Cisco, the reduction of IT budgets, especially for such non-priority areas (VKS), the development of mobile technologies and applications offering a free video call service. Cloud VKS services can be both development drivers and barriers - customers use the video conferencing service more, but they do not want to invest decent money in infrastructure.

According to Alexei Gromakov, Director of the Department for Development and Management of Solutions at NVision Group, despite the seemingly accessible solutions, one of the main barriers is the high cost of products for the large-scale implementation of VKS.

The general trend towards a decrease in IT budgets by companies due to secondary systems influenced, among other things, the demand of the Aerospace Forces. Another obstacle to the implementation of VKS may be the complexity of integration with other corporate systems and business applications, since the involvement of third-party performers is required. Digital inequality and relatively low data transfer rates in the regions also prevent the use of modern video conferencing systems by geographically distributed companies that are more likely to prefer to use traditional communication channels, the expert said.

Maxim Kirsanov, Head of Telecommunications Solutions at Softline, believes that the barrier is the lack of high-quality domestic VKS solutions:

The most advanced and therefore popular VKS products are Western. State-owned companies do not have the right to purchase Western solutions and, quite possibly, will not dare to purchase domestic VKS systems at all simply because so far these systems are not yet sufficiently functional and convenient. This fact will become a certain obstacle to the distribution of VKS at enterprises and organizations that are forced to adhere to the course of import substitution. Also, some problems are created by the law on personal data, which often does not allow Western vendors to deploy the latest services that are implemented according to the cloud model, since user personal data within these services "land" abroad, which contradicts the current legislation

Andrei Sviridenko, chairman of the Spirit board, is confident that their relative cheapness is a barrier to the distribution of Russian products.

Sellers, system integrators, distributors, dealers, buyers within the organization - it is beneficial for all participants in the VKS ecosystem to work with global brands, engage in large transactions with expensive products, since this guarantees a large commission while state clients are still ready to waste taxpayers' money, - he said.

Egor Voitanik, head of the communications department at TrueConf, adds that government agencies continue to want hardware systems, but such purchases are increasingly stopped at the funding level, since there are various tacit wishes not to purchase imported goods.

True, this does not mean at all that Russian analogues are being sought. Most often, various schemes and justifications are developed for acquiring exactly what they are used to, "he explained.

Project structure

The most popular VKS systems and vendor leaders

According to the TAdviser database, which as of July 2017 contains information about about 1.5 thousand VKS projects, most often the Video conference solution is used when implementing video conferencing systems. This product accounts for almost a third of all VKS projects known to TAdviser.

In addition to the Video conference VKS, the top five include Mind, Skype for Business, Trueconf Server and Cisco TelePresence solutions.

In general, if you look at all VKS products of specific vendors, then the position of the companies repeats the Top 5 systems. Among developers, "Video conference" (Spirit) leads. This is followed by Mind, Microsoft, TrueConf and Cisco.

It is worth noting that the TAdviser database accumulates mainly information about open projects, which is distributed by suppliers or customers of VKS products, and is also published in open sources.

Industry specificity of VKS projects

According to the TAdviser database, projects for the introduction of video conferencing systems are most often carried out in the public sector and education. The shares of these industries as of July 2017 are 17 and 14%, respectively.

The share of projects in the IT sector is 8%, in the finance sector - 7%. Medicine, trade and telecom account for 6, 5 and 4% of projects, respectively.

If we consider separately the five most popular industries for video conferencing systems, it is worth noting that in terms of the number of projects in them, 2 leaders stand out - Video conference and Mind. VKS "Video conference" is most in demand in the public sector, medicine and IT. Mind's solutions are in education and finance.

Geography of VKS projects

As of July 2017, the TAdviser database contains information on approximately 1.5 thousand projects for implementing video conferencing solutions. Their main share (almost 90%) falls on Russia. Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus include 2.2%, 1.1% and 0.6% of projects, respectively. About 6.3% - implementations in other countries of the world.

Among the projects completed in Russia, more than half - 51.6%, falls on the Central Federal District. 12% of VKS implementations were made in the Volga Federal District, 11.5% in the North-West. The shares of the remaining districts are presented in the diagram below.

Most often, VKS projects are implemented in Moscow. There are more than 500 of them in the TAdviser database. The second place is behind the northern capital. There are 69 implementations in St. Petersburg.

2014

TrueConf: Market Size $80M (-7%)

The Company TrueConf assessed the changes in the Russian market in the summer of 2015 video conferencings () AEROSPACE FORCES and summed up the results of 2014. The volume of the VKS market both in and Russia abroad, according to the company, continues to decline for the third year in a row. The fall in the Russian Federation in 2014 amounted to about 7%, the indicators dropped to $80 million per year, which corresponds to the level of 2011.

The volume of the Russian VKS market over the past 2014 amounted to $80 million, which is 6 million or 6.9% less than in 2013. There is a similar trend in the world: according to IDC, in 2014, the revenue of the global video conferencing market fell by 6.8% compared to 2013.

2013

Project structure

As of August 2014, the own database of projects in the field of video conferencing of the TAdviser portal totaled 610 projects in the entire history of observations. Of these, 132 projects were completed in 2012, in 2013 - 196 projects (48% more). Some of the data given in the graphs below are calculated only on the basis of the TAdviser database, some are also based on information provided in addition by integrators and vendors. Data sources are specified in each case separately.

Geography of projects

The geography of projects in the TAdviser database mainly covers system implementations implemented in Russia: 90% of them. Another 34 projects fall on the CIS countries (including Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan), 21 - on Europe and America, 12 - on Asia and the Middle East. So most of the trends evidenced by TAdviser statistics, respectively, relate more to the Russian market.

Among the cities of Russia, Moscow and St. Petersburg are in the lead in terms of the number of VKS system implementations for the period from January 2013 to September 2014. You can also note the activity of customers from such cities as Perm, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and the Moscow region.

Among the federal districts, the Central, Volga and North-Western districts stand out in terms of the number of VKS projects implemented during the same period.

Industry specific

Stable segments of VKS users are formed by industry. Thus, in 2013, the financial sector companies demonstrated the greatest interest in software VKS (about 30% of the Russian software VKS market), according to Spirit. Sales in the telecom and public sector, according to the company, amounted to about 20% each, and another 30% fell on the corporate sector, medical and educational institutions.

According to the TAdviser Center database, the most common VKS projects are implemented in the public sector (14% of projects in the database), education and science (13.4%). Less than 10% scored industries in the top ten, such as IT, finance, pharmaceuticals and medicine, telecommunications, trade, engineering, consulting and power.

Top 10 industries in terms of the number of VKS projects *

№	Industry	Number of projects	% of total
1	Public sector	86	14%
2	Education and science	82	13,4%
3	IT	47	7,7%
4	Finance	45	7,4%
5	Pharmaceuticals and Medicine	39	6,5%
6	Telecommunications	33	5,4%
7	Trading	28	4,7%
8	Mechanical Engineering	21	3,9%
9	Consulting	23	3,7%
	Power	23	3,7%
	Other	180	29,6%

TAdviser, 2014
* Total TAdviser to August 2014

Integrator and Supplier Items

Over the entire history of TAdviser observations through August 2014, the number of implementations among the platforms AEROSPACE FORCES stood out,, TrueConf, and Mind. Skype for Business (ранее Microsoft Lync) Oktell Call-center Cisco TelePresence Of course, we are not talking about all the projects implemented. Among the vendors, current data on the number of projects are provided and (TrueConf Mind in the diagram by integrators, the figures provided by the companies are used). In total Russia , 463 projects were implemented on the basis of the Mind platform, 430 projects were implemented on the basis of the TrueConf platform (from 2011 to June 2014).

Among system integrators (in TAdviser terminology, solution providers themselves are also considered integrators, if they implement projects on their own), companies, CROC,TrueConf, and Mind Softline Telephone Systems (Oktell) others are distinguished by the number of VKS projects.

* Data on the most frequently implemented systems are calculated based on the TAdviser database, as well as information provided by vendors and integrators as part of the study (on implementations from 2011 to June 2014). Provide information on the number of projects: erp@tadviser.ru

Interestingly, in certain industries, some integrators stand out from other companies. For example, in the public sector and finance, the largest number of projects were carried out by CROC and Mind, Mind and TrueConf are leading in IT, and so on.

Market size

The volume of the Russian VKS market in 2013 amounted to $130 million, or about 1/70th of the global market (data from Wainhouse Research). At the same time, the pace of development of the Russian market significantly exceeded world indicators. For comparison, in 2010, according to Wainhouse Research, the volume of the VKS market in Russia was $40 million. On average, analysts predicted the growth of the VKS market in Russia at 35-40%. In 2012-2013. in fact, it began to slow down and stopped almost near zero mark (in monetary terms.

"According to our estimates, the total volume of the Russian VKS market amounted to about $200 million in 2013," notes Aleksei Korolyov Mind (). - It is worth noting that today there are two segments on the VKS market that are developing in parallel. These are hardware and software VKS. A couple of years ago, we did not observe competition between them. Now we see that the demand for hardware solutions is not growing as actively as before - this is happening both in Russia and in the world. The reason for this is that VKS software solutions have reached a new level of development and can provide high image and sound quality, as well as uninterrupted communication. But at the same time, their cost is much lower - so they begin to compete aggressively with hardware solutions. As the growth rate of the hardware VKS market is now decreasing, we expect that the main vendors in this segment will change their strategy and soon begin to massively bring to the market a new generation of software VKS solutions

. "

TAdviser Survey Data

TAdviser surveyed key suppliers AEROSPACE FORCES Russia in and collected their assessment of the dynamics and key directions of development of this market for the coming period.

Thus, Panasonic Rus notes that the Russian VKS market is still far from saturated. At the same time, the demand for video conferencing technologies is growing today in small and medium-sized businesses, where they focus on usability, a variety of terminals, the implementation of the BYOD concept and the cost of the solution. In 2014, the growth of BYOD demand was already recorded in all market segments - from SMB to Enterprise.

According to LifeSize, group VKS systems for negotiation rooms are in greatest demand in Russia. People are used to gathering in the negotiating room to discuss serious business issues. Personal systems presented in all-in-one format are also popular - a monitor with an external or built-in codec.

Mind, the Russian developer of VKS systems, considers one of the main trends in 2013-2014. consider the change in the ratio of hardware and software solutions of VKS in the market structure. Mind experts predict that the total CAGR in Russia in 2013-2017 will be about 8% in the hardware video conferencing market and much more - about 30% - in the software VKS market. According to Mind, the reason for this is that VKS software solutions have reached a new level of development and can provide high image and sound quality, as well as uninterrupted communication. But at the same time, their cost is much lower - so they begin to compete aggressively with hardware solutions. Since the growth rate of the hardware VKS market is now declining, we can expect that the main vendors in this segment will change their strategy and will soon begin to massively launch a new generation of software VKS solutions on the market, Mind believes.

Delait 2000 (DeLight) experts believe that the volume of the Russian videoconferencing systems market is declining in financial terms, but is growing in terms of quantitative indicators (i.e. the number of equipped jobs). This is due to relatively inexpensive software solutions. According to the company's forecasts, the active development of the market for systems based on software solutions in the field of combined communications will continue to be observed.

The decline in growth rates over the past 2 years is also confirmed by Polymedia specialists. This was facilitated by a lot of reasons, the most noticeable among which are the general economic downturn and also the simplification and availability of the technology itself. With each goal, there is a noticeable decrease in the cost of VKS solutions.

MegaFon estimates the volume of the VKS market in Russia in 2014 at about $100-120 million. Experts note that the demand for VKS is growing every year, but cheaper software solutions appear that replace hardware, which causes a drop in the total market volume, with growing demand.

The largest share (according to some estimates up to 70-75%) of this market is sales of VKS equipment (infrastructure, terminal equipment, VKS outsourcing services) of world leaders such as (Cisco, Polycom, LifeSize, etc. Then there are software solutions, including SaaS services of WEB conferences (about 25%). Operator services "VKS as a service" are still only at the beginning of development and occupy no more than 1% of the market, experts say "Megafon." Today, such service models are in demand in the West, and we only have them implemented and have three telecom operators: MegaFon, VimpelCom and Orange Business Services (Orange Business Services, Equant).

Trueconf data

According to TrueConf, in 2013 the volume of the videoconferencing (VKS) market in the Russian Federation amounted to $86 million *, thus its reduction compared to 2012 amounted to more than 10%. Experts note that this trend is also observed in the global market, where the share of infrastructure equipment for VKS in the revenue of leading vendors is falling.

According to TrueConf experts, the decrease in the volume of the domestic market should not be regarded as a negative signal, since the number of subscribers and meeting rooms connected to corporate VKS continues to increase, only the cost of the projects themselves changes. VKS is becoming a more mainstream and affordable solution that no longer requires expensive MCUs that are successfully replaced with scalable video coding (SVC) software solutions. One of the factors confirming this, TrueConf specialists noted a 20% increase in their revenue in the Russian Federation from the sale of licenses ON for VKS in 2013 in relation to 2012.

* In assessing the volumes of the IT market of the Russian Federation, the company relied on data from analytical agencies Wainhouse Research, IDC, Forrester Research, and determined the market share of the VKS based on its own data, as well as information received from partners: distributors and system integrators in the field of VKS in the Russian Federation.

Earlier, TrueConf did not observe a reduction in the domestic VKS market. When assessing the volume of the video conferencing market, experts took into account the sales of terminals for meeting rooms and workplaces, multilateral communication control units, gateways, licenses for client and server software and other products present in this market.

"Due to the emergence of a large number of players in the VKS market who are pursuing a more aggressive pricing policy, the share of companies such as Cisco and Polycom is gradually decreasing. Naturally, new players offer similar solutions at lower prices. This is what we believe influenced the change in the market volume in the Russian Federation, "- explained in TrueConf.

Based on its own sales data, TrueConf concluded that in 2013 the main customers in the VKS market in Russia were the public sector (17% share), the financial sector, including insurance (14%), education (13%) and the energy sector (10%). At the same time, analysts emphasized the high growth in demand in the field of education - in 2012 its share was only 7%. This is due, according to experts, to the spread of distance learning.

According to TrueConf, according to the results of 2014, the share of software solutions in the VKS market and the popularity of video communication technologies will grow. In addition, integrators will take care of sales of cloud VKS solutions, and users will require access to VKS from mobile devices.

2012: Market Size $96 Million

According to TrueConf, in 2012 the volume of the VKS market in the Russian Federation grew to $96 million, and its share in the structure of the ICT industry reached 0.4%. According to experts, the videoconferencing market in Russia in the coming years will continue to grow following global indicators, but its growth rate will slow down. This is due to the upcoming maturity of the VKS market in the Russian Federation. TrueConf experts also estimated the volume of the VKS market in Ukraine, which in 2012 amounted to $12 million .

In the spring of 2012, TrueConf conducted a study on the introduction of VKS technologies. The survey was attended by more than 80 representatives of educational institutions, heads of enterprises and businesses, IT specialists from various sectors of the economy. According to the results of the survey, experts TrueConf came to the conclusion that the Russian VKS market is moving into a new phase of development, which is characterized by the processes of scaling and integrating existing network communication systems of enterprises.

According to the results of the study, only 17% of the companies surveyed do not use video conferencing as one of the corporate communication channels. For comparison, this figure for e-mail is only 5%. When asked about the plans for the development of the video conferencing infrastructure of their companies, 27% of respondents answered that they are interested in integrating the existing VKS system with new unified communications solutions, 21% planned to scale the existing VKS infrastructure, and 19% will prefer parallel and independent use of old and new systems.

Answering the question about the advantages of using VKS technologies, 94% of respondents highlighted a reduction in operating costs for meetings and business trips, simplification of interaction between branches and remote employees, as well as an increase in the frequency and number of meetings and meetings, only 6% did not find clear advantages from VKS.

The results of a survey organized by TrueConf specialists in October 2011 among the participants of the seminar "Practice of building video conferencing systems (VKS)." According to the results of a survey of representatives of government agencies, educational institutions, heads of enterprises and business, heads and employees of IT departments of companies from various fields of activity, the following was recorded: 25.6% of respondents noted the need to create a corporate VKS system in the clouds, 33.6% - the need to integrate video communication with a corporate PBX, 9.6% indicated the need for video communication with support for OC Mac OS X, 17.6% - with support for OS Linux, 41.6% noted the need for video communication through an Internet browser.

The answers to the question of which type of VKS products are preferred were distributed as follows: 72% of respondents chose software solutions, 35.2% - hardware, 24% - SaaS-prilozheniya/vebinary, 30.4% - free solutions.

According to the results of a traditional survey about the problems that are encountered when introducing VKS systems at enterprises, it was recorded: speaking about difficulties in organizing VKS, 44.8% of respondents noted insufficient throughput of existing communication channels, 43.2% - high cost of solutions, 32% - unprepared employees to use VKS, 25.6% named integration into the company's infrastructure as difficulties in introducing VKS, 20.8% - lack of VKS engineers, 4.8% did not find a suitable offer, 3.2% reported that they had no difficulties, and a small number of respondents - 1,6% - noted the absence of the need for the introduction of VKS, the unwillingness of partners, the unwillingness of management. One respondent replied that the VKS was not implemented.

2011

The first video conferencing systems appeared more than 40 years ago. However, for many years they were difficult and expensive for a wide range of users. The main barriers were the underdevelopment of video technologies, low channel throughput and lack of computing power necessary for signal transmission and processing, respectively.^[3]

The growth of the VKS market is facilitated by both the development of network infrastructure and technologies, as well as regular natural and social cactaclysms, from the eruption of the notorious Eyjafjallajökull volcano to an increase in the level of terrorist threats. If you "impose" on all this the obvious savings in time and money that the use of VKS systems gives, it becomes clear that the demand for them will grow.

Forecast: According to estimates of Russian participants in the VKS market, the volume of revenues in the VKS sector in 2011 will amount to about $90 million, which is almost 2 times more than the same indicator in 2010. In the coming years, the Russian VKS market will grow by an average of 30% per year, which is 2 times faster than the world one. In 2010, according to the analytical company Wainhouse Research, the volume of the VKS market in Russia amounted to $40-60 million. A similar opinion is shared by the Asteros company, according to which this figure approached $40 million in 2010, and almost doubled in 2011 to $75-90 million. In 2012, representatives of Asteros expect an increase in the volume of the VKS market by 35-40%.

According to Alexei Pilipchuk, technical director of Technoserv, the domestic VKS sector is growing annually by 20-25%, while the global sector is growing by 10-15%. According to his estimates, the market volume in 2011 will be about $90-120 million, excluding related goods and services.

Today, large-scale federal projects remain the main engine of the VKS systems market in Russia. The largest of them are in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Moscow State University. Lomonosov, TNK, VTB, FMS of Russia. The latter is currently at the final stage. In the new building of the central office of the department on Chistoprudny Boulevard, a single multimedia complex has been created for holding meetings in video conferencing mode. The system can connect to departmental group video conferencing. In 2009, similar work was carried out in the building of the central office of the FMS of Russia in Boyarsky Lane in Moscow and in the territorial service bodies in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk.

2010

In 2010, the market video conferencings () AEROSPACE FORCES in the world exceeded 3.5 billion dollars, and by 2015 it is projected to increase to 8.8 billion. Russia According to various estimates, including analytics from the American company Wainhouse Research, it ranges from $40-60 million with an annual growth of about 20%. Moreover, the share of VKS software systems, which occupy 23% of the entire market, is growing faster than the VKS market as a whole, which is associated with improved communication channels and gradual implementation.

In 2010, it became possible to use videoconferencing in economic justice. According to article 153.1, which amended Federal Law No. 228-FZ on amending the Code of Arbitration and Procedure, the VKS becomes a procedural action, within the framework of which, from October 27, 2010, the parties can apply for a hearing of the case in the VKS mode in the presence of technical capabilities. It has already been proven that with the help of video conferencing, it is possible to achieve multibillion-dollar savings in public funds.

VKS 2010 Market Participants

The largest players in the global VKS systems market are Cisco and Polycom (the first "gained weight" by acquiring the long-term leader of this market, the Norwegian company Tandberg, on the basis of which the Cisco TelePresence technology group was formed). If we take the endpoints of group video conferencing systems, then, according to the data for the second quarter of 2010, Cisco overtook Polycom (31%) in terms of sales (45% of the market), but Polycom was ahead in terms of the number of devices delivered - 40% versus 31% for Cisco.

The most significant positions in the remaining quarter of the market occupy, and Sony Radvision. LifeSize Radvision, traditionally known as a provider of VKS infrastructure solutions (primarily multi-point servers - video conference MCU), has significantly strengthened its position by acquiring individual assets of the Aethra group (including intellectual property in high-definition technologies), which produces VKS terminal equipment. In general, there is a desire of manufacturers to offer comprehensive solutions, including both the infrastructure and terminal parts. Another confirmation of this trend was the recent announcement by LifeSize of the release of its first dedicated MCU server - LifeSize Bridge 2200 (before that it offered servers third-party development).

All the above companies are suppliers of classic VKS systems, the "heart" of which is the MCU server. Its main function is to "mix" video streams from terminals into a single picture and send it back to the terminals. It should be understood that the MCU server is not only the most important, but also the most expensive component of the VKS system. The cost of most such devices starts from 100 thousand rubles. for one "standard" SD port and from 200 thousand rubles. for one high definition port. Thus, say, a 12-port MCU costs 1 million rubles. or more.

Are there any alternatives? One of them, offered by Vidyo, is based on innovative media flow routing technology. The VidyoRouter device only redistributes information flows without transcoding them, as is the case in the MCU. The implementation of this approach was made possible by the use of the scalable H.264 SVC codec. In the Vidyo system, the decoding of media streams and the layout of a common picture is carried out on the terminal equipment, which, according to its specialists, can significantly reduce the cost of the central server and reduce data transmission delays.

Another option is the use of MCU resources installed by service providers. Such services are already actively offered in Russia, while their suppliers use both MCU servers from well-known manufacturers (for example, RTCOM and Immerscom companies work in a similar way) and their own software developments (Video Port and Video conference). The wide availability of such services has largely become possible due to the development of loss compensation algorithms in communication channels, which makes it possible to use the Internet for VKS sessions almost without restrictions.

Removing restrictions on the use of the Internet for VKS is a huge step forward in increasing the availability of this type of communications. But it should be borne in mind that for users to work over the Internet, it is necessary to ensure that the traffic of the VKS of firewalls and network address translation systems passes. The solution to these problems has already been well worked out, but it is often implemented by additional software or hardware components, and they increase the cost of the project.

VKS integration

An important trend is the integration of VKS both with various business applications and with other video systems. For example, according to experts, in the near future, video communication systems will increasingly integrate with IP video surveillance systems, which will allow connecting to surveillance video cameras from any video phone or VKS terminal and monitoring various production processes from the workplace (for example, shipping goods in a warehouse or the situation in the trading floor).

Another example: integration with professional audiovisual equipment. Today, a typical situation is when the conference room is equipped with modern VKS systems, however, the means of controlling video streams and related equipment, which provide, in particular, light characteristics in the room, remain at the level of the Stone Age. Professional video signal switches will allow you to easily switch video from any source (computer, VKS codec, video camera, DVD-play, document camera) to any receiver (projector, TV, VKS terminal), and room equipment controls (lighting, curtains, blinds, etc.) - one mouse click to prepare the room for the VKS session.

2009

According to Wainhouse Research, in the most difficult period, the first quarter of 2009, terminal sales fell by only 7.7% in monetary terms and by 8.9% in terms of the number of equipment delivered (compared to the corresponding quarter of 2008). But already in the second quarter of 2009, the market almost rose to the level of the pre-crisis 2008.

The Russian public sector continues to be one of the active consumers of modern ICT, including in the field of VKS. The Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation uses the means of the Aerospace Forces in its work. In particular, if in 2008 a similar regime in the ministry was used by the organization once a quarter, since the fall of 2009 it began to happen monthly, and since 2010 almost every operational meeting is held in the VKS mode.

See also

• VKS (main section on TAdviser)
• Video conferencing innovations
• Video Conferencing and Telepresence Solutions (Global Market)
• Technological trends in the development of the Russian VKS market
• VKS developer rating in Russia 2016