On Tuesday, June 30, we hosted our latest IPECS Insights session. ‘Winning the Vertical Market with IPECS Cloud.
Presented by Jeff Lim, Account Manager at IPECS, Brian Shin, Account Manager at IPECS, and special guest Tom Wiles, Sales Specialist at Gamma, the session explored how partners can move beyond the increasingly competitive general UCaaS market by targeting industry-specific opportunities. From global market trends to UK insights and a real-world education case study, the session highlighted how vertical expertise are becoming key differentiators for long-term growth.
The growing opportunity in Vertical UCaaS
Jeff Lim opened the session by examining how the UCaaS market continues to evolve. While cloud adoption has become mainstream, the next phase of growth is being driven by AI , automation and industry-specific solutions.
Key trends shaping the market include collaboration-led communications, AI-infused workflows, mobile-first experiences and hybrid deployments. One of the most significant developments is the growing demand for Vertical UCaaS, where communications platforms are designed to meet the operational, compliance and workflow requirements of specific industries.
The Vertical opportunity
With the global UCaaS market expected to reach $45 billion by 2031, Jeff explained that the greatest opportunities no longer lie in generic deployments, but in delivering solutions that address the unique challenges faced by sectors such as healthcare, hospitality, education and care homes.
Rather than competing on price alone, partners can differentiate themselves by delivering communications platforms that integrate with industry-specific applications, support regulatory compliance and improve day-to-day operations.
Healthcare was highlighted as the largest vertical opportunity, driven by increasing demand for secure communications, regulatory compliance and integration with healthcare systems. Hospitality, education and care homes were also identified as high-growth sectors where specialist communications capabilities are becoming essential.
What customers need from Vertical UCaaS
Jeff also explored what organizations now expect from a Vertical UCaaS solution. Deep software integrations, built-in compliance, mobile-first experiences for frontline workers and consolidated cloud platforms are increasingly becoming the standard rather than optional extras. These capabilities allow partners to position IPECS Cloud as more than a communications platform, demonstrating measurable operational value for customers.
Why the UK market presents a major opportunity
Brian Shin then focused on the UK Vertical UCaaS Market report 2026.
The UK UCaaS market is expected to reach £4.2 billion by the end of 2026, with cloud telephony adoption continuing to rise. One of the biggest catalysts is the PSTN switch-off, which is creating a significant migration opportunity as organizations replace legacy telephony systems with cloud-based alternatives.
Brian highlighted that Vertical UCaaS is forecast to be the fastest-growing segment of the UK market, with projected growth of 71% between 2024 and 2026. Around 2.8 million telephony seats across healthcare, hospitality, education and care homes are still expected to migrate to cloud communications, representing a substantial opportunity for partners.
Understanding Vertical requirements
Each industry has its own operational workflows, compliance requirements and purchasing priorities. Healthcare organizations require secure communications and regulatory compliance, hospitality businesses rely on property management system integrations, while education and care providers have safeguarding, emergency communication and operational requirements that generic UCaaS platforms often struggle to address.
Brian highlighted the commercial advantages of specializing in vertical markets. Compared with generic UCaaS deployments, vertical solutions typically deliver higher average revenue per user, lower customer churn and longer contract terms, creating stronger long-term value for both partners and customers.
Brian also introduced the five pillars for Vertical UCaaS success which included:
- Focusing on a small number of target sectors, noting that vertical specialist partners achieve 2-3x higher win rates than generalists
- Building vertical expertise through training on specific sector workflows
- Leading with compliance and close with integration
- Taking advantage of the PSTN migration opportunity and leading with a proactive displacement campaign
- Developing commercial offers tailored to each industry, shifting from a per-seat to a per-outcome pricing strategy
Education in action: lessons from Gamma’s success
The final part of the session saw Tom Wiles share how Gamma has successfully developed its education offering using IPECS Cloud, providing a practical example of how vertical specialization can create new opportunities.
Education represents one of the UK’s largest cloud communications opportunities, with schools requiring reliable communications, safeguarding capabilities, secure parent engagement and integrations with specialist management platforms.
Tom explained that many of the challenges schools face extend beyond replacing legacy phone systems. Parent communications, dispute resolution, safeguarding, budget pressures and resilience all influence purchasing decisions, meaning communications platforms must support wider operational outcomes.
Through features such as call recording, queue management, mobile communications and integrations with education management platforms such as Arbor, IPECS Cloud enables schools to improve communications while fitting seamlessly into existing workflows.
Tom shared a successful deployment for a large academy trust spanning more than 60 schools. The project involved migrating over 2,600 extensions across multiple sites within a tight implementation window, while retaining significant amounts of existing hardware to control costs. Close collaboration between Gamma, IPECS and the partner ensured the deployment met the customer’s operational, commercial and technical requirements, demonstrating the flexibility of the IPECS Cloud platform.
Building the next phase of growth
The main message from this month’s IPECS Insights session was – as the general UCaaS market becomes increasingly mature, the greatest opportunities for partners lie in developing expertise within specific industries.
By combining iPECS Cloud with deep integrations, compliance capabilities and a clear understanding of sector-specific requirements, partners can move beyond price-based competition and deliver greater value to customers.
The session concluded by encouraging partners to continue sharing ideas, building vertical expertise and working together to capture the growing opportunities across healthcare, hospitality, education, care homes and beyond.
