Unified Communications - the Untapped Resources

SINGAPORE--(Business Wire)--
With the increasing need to stay productive and race against time
to deliver the best services in the shortest time, organisations are
deploying various communication tools that enable real-time customer
interaction, around the clock.

As such, the concept of Unified Communications (UC) is the new
buzz word in the business community. Although UC tools have been
around for over a decade, it is only of late that businesses are
exploring the wider spectrum of UC beyond the basic tools of email and
telephony.

Attesting to this current trend, Frost & Sullivan predicts that
the UC market will grow by 13 percent in 2008 to reach revenues of
US$4.55 billion by the end of this year. Much of this immediate growth
is expected to come from telephony upgrades, IP telephony migration
and email upgrades embedded with UC applications.(1)

As UC takes prominence with the various solutions and applications
available today, leaders from a variety of service sectors gather
today at Frost & Sullivan's 2nd Annual Unified Communications
Executive MindXchange Summit. Held at the Sheraton Towers, the one-day
summit features speakers from Avaya, Aspect, Microsoft Unified
Communications Group, along with senior industry analysts from Frost &
Sullivan.

Presenting the day's opening address, on the landscape for Unified
Communications in Asia-Pac, Manoj Menon, Partner at Frost & Sullivan,
discusses the trends and predictions in the UC market. In concluding,
he elaborates on future directions to enhance collaboration and
compatibility between providers.

"Growth is the top priority for any enterprise. In order to stay
on the growth track, enterprises in Asia-Pacific are looking at
Unified Communications to stay agile, productive and customer-centric.
UC holds the key to enhanced team collaboration, improved business
processes and increased cost-savings," says Manoj.

Topics for the day include discussions on the business benefits of
UC, case studies on actual UC deployments, enhancing customer service
with UC, collaboration, and the key success factors in a global
economy. The summit also discusses issues that are often cited by
C-level executives on the lack of utilisation of UC tools at a panel
discussion and case study analysis on successful UC deployments.

Aside from these highly informative sessions, special
delegate-driven think-tank sessions are also conducted on the 'dos'
and 'don'ts' of deploying UC and justifying the business case for UC.
The sessions allow individual participants to openly discuss real
concerns and constraints faced by business leaders in the process of
implementing UC that best fit their organisations.

The summit is sponsored by Avaya, Aspect and Plantronics. Business
Today, Enterprise Innovation, Network World Asia and ZDNet Asia are
the official media partners, while the Association of
Telecommunications Industry of Singapore (ATiS) is a supporting
organisation for the summit.

For more information, please visit www.frost-uc.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with
clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research,
Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership empower clients to create
a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements
effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of
experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging
businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on
six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan's Growth
Partnerships, visit http://www.frost.com

Frost & Sullivan
Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific
Neethiya Sadagopal, +65.6890.0966
neethiya.sadagopal@frost.com
or
Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific
Surbhi Dedhia, +65.6890.0926
surbhi.dedhia@frost.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008