IDC expects traditional divisions between telephony and IT to erode as network equipment vendors move from proprietary hardware and software towards software running over dedicated servers.
The analyst firm pointed out that networking vendors have traditionally experienced very little competition for support services owing to the proprietary nature of their products.
But as the market moves toward software running on general purpose servers, a slew of third-party support services providers and systems vendors have an opportunity to provide support services for the hardware.
"As the IP PBX market shifts, the model for support services will begin to look more like the model for other mission-critical software applications," said Matt Healey, a senior research analyst at IDC.
"In this model, the VoIP vendors will be responsible for supporting the software in partnership with a systems vendor, or a third party will be responsible for supporting the hardware."
The IDC report also predicts that VoIP equipment vendors will need to evolve from a hardware-centric support model to a software support model as this market shift advances.
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