Economic slowdown enhances adoption of UC solutions in South Asia

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Mumbai: The global economic slowdown will enhance the Unified Communications (UC) growth path in the short-term, in South Asia and Middle East. According to a Frost & Sullivan study, the increasingly complex work environment, multiple work locations, new competitive dynamics, and the consequent need to control costs have led enterprise end users in the South Asia and Middle East region to consider the adoption of Unified Communications (UC). The study reveals that India leads the regional UC market in terms of total spending and better overall awareness of UC. India has good potential for growth of UC applications as demonstrated by the CAGR of 7.9 percent in the period from 2008 to 2015. With continued adoption by several key verticals such as BFSI, and IT/ITeS, the Indian market is anticipated to weather the economic slowdown and emerge as a strong market for UC vendors. According to Lavanya Palani Batcha, Senior Research Analyst, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, a few trends seen in this market are rising interest in UC applications, adoption of IP telephony, bundling of UC applications, key growth drivers namely conferencing and collaboration, and higher value proposition with integration of business processes. The Sri Lankan market is yet to see any significant deployment of UC applications. However, IP telephony is gaining traction, especially amongst larger enterprises. With favorable regulations, IP telephony adoption is set to grow, outpacing the demand for traditional telephony. The CAGR for this market is expected to be 12.2 percent between 2008 and 2015. Bangladesh, with strict regulations on VOIP comes last. The country faces challenging market conditions such as restrictive regulations on IP telephony, poor awareness levels, and inadequate infrastructure, which have proved to be impediments to the growth of UC. The situation is not much different in the Middle East. The Saudi Arabian UC market is characterized by heavy spending from the Government and Oil and Gas companies. IP telephony adoption has been constantly on the rise, with the government providing scope for large size deals. The Egyptian UC market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.1 percent in the forecast period from 2008 to 2015. High levels of interest in IP telephony has resulted in good adoption in the country. With a huge potential in the domestic IT/ITeS market and with good support from the government towards ICT initiatives, the Egyptian UC market, especially the Contact Center applications, is anticipated to grow at a brisk pace.

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