UC Sees Strong Growth as Asian Businesses Begin to Realise the Power of Unified Comms,...

UC Sees Strong Growth as Asian Businesses Begin to Realise the Power of Unified Comms, Says Frost & Sullivan

SINGAPORE--(Business Wire)--
Enterprise communications today are enabled by a multitude of
devices (desk phones, mobile phones, laptops) through a variety of
networks (voice, data, wireless). CIOs everywhere realise the power of
Unified Communications (UC) in eliminating the inefficiencies in
enterprise communications by streamlining and unifying the disparate
tools available to users.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan
(http://www.enterprisecommunications.frost.com), Asia Pacific Unified
Communications Market, finds that the market - covering 14
Asia-Pacific countries - earned revenues of US$4.03 billion in 2007
and estimates this to reach US$8.17 billion by end-2014, at a CAGR
(compound annual growth rate) of 10.6 percent (2007-2014).

The UC market is forecasted to 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.

In the longer term, applications such as conferencing and
collaboration, mobility, and presence or instant messaging are
expected to be the growth drivers for greater UC adoption.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides
service providers, vendors/manufacturers, end users, and other
industry participants with an overview of the Asia-Pacific unified
communications market, then send an e-mail to Sarah Lourdes at
sarah.lourdes@frost.com, with your full name, company name, title,
telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address. Upon receipt of the
above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.

"With globalization and the Internet having a significant impact
on enterprises and the level of competition they face, the need for
enterprises to be agile and quick to respond is critical. The need for
communications to be at the forefront of this transition is a reality
that CIOs across the region are beginning to heed," says Frost &
Sullivan industry manager Shivanu Shukla.

He adds that the ability for the growing mobile workforce to have
access to company communications applications while away from the
office environment is seen as a high priority.

Some of the early adopters of UC tools are large enterprises with
over 250 users and distributed offices throughout the region.

"Distributed teams in multiple locations, cities and countries
have increased the need for collaboration within enterprises. Consumer
collaboration trends with Web 2.0 technologies are also influencing
enterprise collaboration techniques," notes Shukla.

The biggest challenge for UC adoption however is measuring
productivity gains and quantifying ROI (return on investments). This
is further compounded by the uncertainty of interoperability of the
various UC applications.

Initial deployments as such are expected in phases of one to two
UC applications, instead of one-time investments. Roll-outs within
organisations are also expected in phases, starting with IT teams,
senior executives and mobile workers, rather than company-wide
implementations.

Key growth markets with reasonable early deployments include
Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea; while markets such as
India and China offer clear potential for wider UC uptake, especially
for bundled UC applications.

The Asia Pacific Unified Communications Market study is part of
the Enterprise Communications Growth Partnership Service program,
which also includes research in the following markets: UC quarterly
trackers, UC end user studies (selected countries), enterprise
telephony quarterly trackers and annual study, and managed telephony
services. All research services included in subscriptions provide
detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been
evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.
Analyst interviews are available to the press.

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:
Sarah Lourdes, +603-6207-1030
sarah.lourdes@frost.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008