| 10 Mar 2010 |
|
Middle East's Unified Communications Market Expected to Soar by 2014
- Text size
DUBAI -- The unified communications market, or UC, is beginning to settle in the region as businesses seek to streamline their operations and maximise capabilities of workforce, a study has revealed.
The study, conducted by Frost & Sullivan and commissioned by Avaya IncAvaya Inc
., also showed that investment in the UC sector is expected to reach $235 million and that over 50 per cent of companies in the Middle East intend to roll out UC within the next hree years.
Unified communications is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging, telephony, video conferencing, and even e-mail.
Roger El Tawil, AvayaAvaya
's Managing Director for the Gulf and Pakistan, said that UC is already being widely used by companies in the region, and he expects more growth in the near future."The adoption is picking up... especially in small and medium businesses (SMBs)," El Tawil told Khaleej Times in a telephone interview.
He said that at present, the UC market in the region is worth around $180 million.
Firms are continually being introduced to and updated on the role of UC in business, as "education (on UC) has been going on over the years," El Tawil said.
The study also showed that almost 60 per cent of companies surveyed reported that the global economic downturn had no impact at all on their decision to deploy communication and collaboration tools.
In addition, enterprises are optimistic about the increase in information technology budgets, with 65 per cent expecting their IT budgets to increase over the next two years.
Senior management in more than 30 per cent of companies surveyed in the region use tools such as video and web conferencing and presence information while conducting business.
Currently, large enterprises contribute around 52.3 per cent of UC revenues, while 47.7 per cent of revenues come from the SMB sector.
By Alvin R. Cabral
© Khaleej Times 2010
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
Loading ...
Post a Comment
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.