West IP Communications (News - Alert), a segment of West Communications’ UC department, catapulted to the number-two slot of top VoIP services, according to the Infonetics (News - Alert) 2012 North American Business VoIP Leadership Scorecard.

The IP Communications segment of West Communications specializes in transitioning businesses to a cloud-based delivery model for its voice, network and collaboration services. West IP also helps contact centers to make the switch to the cloud by designing, configuring, managing and supporting next-generation UC applications and services.

“Our focus on operations and service excellence, coupled with the flexibility of our solutions, propelled our rise on the Infonetics report,” said Robert Wise, Executive Vice President of West IP Communications. “While new vendors are entering the hosted provider market, our customers can be confident knowing they are working with a trusted partner with a long track record of helping organizations improve their business processes and achieve success.”

With the ranking, West Communications rises into the territory of companies like Comcast and Verizon (News - Alert), which topped the report. West offers two hosted VoIP solutions for medium- and large-sized businesses: VoiceMaxx and VoiceMaxx CE.

VoiceMaxx CE assists organizations that need a Cisco (News - Alert)-centered solution by deploying Cisco Hosted Collaboration.

“The hosted VoIP and UC market in North America has undergone a number of changes in the past year, with ongoing consolidation and traditional PBX (News - Alert) vendors entering the market,” commented Diane Myers, Principal Analyst of VoIP and IMS at Infonetics. Myers led the team that created this year’s scorecard.

“West IP Communications ratcheted up a notch on this year's scorecard as a result of solid execution and success in driving new customers onto its hosted VoIP platform,” West Communications officials said. “Moreover, West IP Communications bundled its hosted VoIP and UC offerings with data services to ensure high quality of service levels.”

A report released by Infonetics in April showed that Hosted PBX and UC revenue grew 33 percent in 2011. The SIP trunking sector reported revenue growth of 128 percent in 2011. Some providers deliver SIP trunking along with Hosted VoIP.

Hosted VoIP, at least in some areas, is beginning to gain market traction. For most companies, SMBs are the target audience.