Dubai, UAE, February 12, 2019 – NEC Enterprise Solutions, global leader in Communications and IT solutions, has appointed Blue Ocean Global as its Master Distributor for SMB communications solutions in the United Arab Emirates. Blue Ocean Global will provide resellers in the UAE, Oman and Iraq with NEC’s latest range of advanced communications solutions for enhanced productivity, efficiency and business continuity.

Blue Ocean Global is a leading distributor of communication solutions with a network of about 250 telecom resellers nationwide and will distribute the renowned NEC UNIVERGE SV9100 and SL2100 communication servers and their powerful range of terminals and business applications.

The partnership will help NEC’s telephony products to penetrate deeper in the corporate world, small and medium businesses as well as the growing number of households. Blue Ocean Group’s strong network of distributors and re-sellers will ensure increased sale of NEC telephone and accessories in the UAE and beyond.

Fixed-phone subscription base is expected to grow from 1.2 billion in 2011 to 1.55 billion this year and 1.66 billion by 2025, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

NEC Corporation become the leading vendor in the global Call Control (PBX-IP PBX) extensions/ licenses market in December 2018, taking the no. 1 position as worldwide market leader in MZA's latest Call Control (PBX-IP PBX) report for Q3 2018.

With a market share of 14%, NEC was ahead of all other companies in the report. The success underscores the strength of NEC's portfolio of communications solutions, the company's commitment to expand its global enterprise communications footprint and the ability to serve customers worldwide.

"We are particularly proud to become Master Distributor for NEC in UAE, the Global No.1 in the IP-PBX Call Control market. Their communication systems are characterised by excellent functionality, unrivalled reliability and excellent value for money,” says Shahzad Ahmed, Chairman and CEO of Blue Ocean Global.

”The broad and powerful portfolio of this world leader enables us to further expand our offering in the market and we expect to expand our network in the coming period in order to meet the increasing demand in the region and fulfill our growth ambitions."

NEC offers a broad range of enterprise communications solutions - ranging from small to very large systems that effectively support enterprise and SMB customers whose requirements span from traditional TDM to full IP and 100% software-based deployments.

“We are very pleased to have Blue Ocean Global as Master Distributor in the UAE,” says Domenico De-Stefanis, Managing Director of NEC Enterprise Solutions in the Middle East. “Blue Ocean is very familiar with our products and their in-depth knowledge of the telecom sector and the needs of organizations in the region, will help us further promote our powerful range of solutions. Blue Ocean has the knowledge, infrastructure and capacity to train its resellers for successful business in this strong growing market.”

The global hosted PBX market size is expected to grow from US$4.73 billion in 2018 to US$9.50 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 14.9 percent during the forecast period, according to Research and Markets, one of the world’s largest market research organisations.

The hosted PBX market is gaining traction due to the rising need of enterprise mobility and rising adoption of the cloud and unified communications, the report said. Furthermore, low CAPEX and TCO, and the necessity to upgrade from traditional PBX to cloud-based PBX are driving the market. However, security and privacy concerns are restraining the hosted PBX market growth.