Growth in SIP, VoIP, and UC networks is driving demand for session border controllers (SBC) in enterprises and carriers.
Customers have long had many vendor options for SBCs. The question is, which SBC provider is the best fit for customers in today's environment? This is key because SBCs are the lynchpin between secure VoIP and UC networks and internetworking.
The Eastern Management Group examined the vendor options in a new study of 3,000 IT managers working at companies ranging in size from one employee to more than 20,000 across 19 vertical markets, including service providers, and in all world regions. In the 18-month research effort, we studied customers of the 14 SBCs that dominate the world market for these devices, as shown below.
We asked IT managers to rate their SBC vendor customer satisfaction on 10 measurements, including support, value, and technology. As a final measure, we asked respondents whether they'd recommend their SBC vendor to a friend. Through our research, we found that Metaswitch, Alcatel-Lucent, and Sangoma rank highest in likelihood to be recommended by their customers to others.
Here's a look at how Metaswitch, Alcatel-Lucent, and Sangoma came about their high grades:
Alcatel-Lucent -- Alcatel-Lucent shines like a beacon in the field of SBC support, which we define as a vendor's cradle-to-grave relationship built with the customer. Target customers are mid-sized and large organizations with emphasis on government, electronics, and information technology businesses, our survey found. While IT managers view the company as strong in various customer satisfaction measurement areas, they gave it very high grades -- four stars out of a possible four -- in support, the greatest possible number of stars awarded by customers.
Sangoma -- Sangoma's SBC technology and products are peerless. Customers gave Sangoma the highest possible ranking -- four stars -- for reliability. The company's customers are SMBs, enterprises, and service providers. Based on our survey, many Sangoma users are small, with up to 500 employees. Sangoma is well distributed in LATAM, North America, Europe, and APAC. A plus for Sangoma is its customers' IT spending plans, which our survey finds are growing six percent or more annually for half of its customer base.
This is Eastern Management Group's fourth customer satisfaction study of SIP technology providers all in the past year. Other subjects have been SIP trunks, VoIP phones, and PBXs. More information about the "2018 Session Border Controller SBC Customer Satisfaction" report is available from Eastern Management Group. For questions about the SBC customer satisfaction study and report please ask our researchers or contact John Malone.
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