Enterprises Harness the Power of Unified Communications

Unified communications has altered the way business communication takes place today. Unified communications or commonly known as UC, is a productivity tool which results in increased responsiveness and time savings. It enables to improve the way companies, individuals and groups interact, significantly.

Enterprises have begun to make large investments to deploy modern means to enhance productivity and collaborate effectively with remote or mobile workers. According to a recent Frost & Sullivan analysis on UC in Asia Pacific, the revenues earned by the regional market stood at US$4.03 billion in 2007 and is estimated to reach US$8.17 billion by end of 2014 growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.6 percent.

Incorporating email and telephony into the operation have been the commonly used form of UC that were deployed by businesses around the world. Today with technological advancement coupled with the knowledge of such availabilities prevalent among users, UC integrates telephony, e-mail, instant messaging, unified messaging, mobility, presence, video, audio and web conferencing and collaboration. It allows users to access real-time information and communicate via a plethora of devices and tools. Through unifying and streamlining communication via such deployments, organisations have closed the gap in inefficiencies within enterprise communications spectrum.

"Pace of business and the level of competition have increased dramatically over the last 5 years. Rising customer expectations, increasing mobile workforce and the growing competition is driving the need for enterprises to be agile and quick to respond to the changing market dynamics. Enterprises are beginning to realise the role of communication in achieving this agility and enhanced productivity." says Frost & Sullivan industry manager Shivanu Shukla.

While time-saving and work efficiency are undeniably attractive factors for UC deployments, organisations are also leveraging UC to enhance customer service. Enterprises are extending UC to contact centers to enhance the overall customer experience and route critical customer interactions based on presence of an expert in the enterprise.

Posted to the site on 10th July 2008