UC&C Adoption in the Middle East

Unified Communication and Collaboration (UC&C) is spreading worldwide, although not at the same pace across the world. As such, it often helps to look at specific regions and how they’re handling the adoption of UC&C. In the Middle East, for example, a recent study and roundtable by BT (News - Alert) found just how UC&C is spreading and being used.

The roundtable featured speakers from companies across the Middle East and all corners of the world, and was moderated by Philip McCrum of The Economist Corporate Network Middle East. They discussed BT’s global survey, as well as local trends, adoption and problems posed to UC deployment in the region.

A point that most could agree on was the importance of the cost of adopting UC&C; however, finding new ways for mobile employees to work was also important, creating a balance that must be struck.

In other words, how can employees be given flexible ways to work on-the-go without costing the company too much? Many of the executives polled stated that managers and colleagues being slow to make any decisions presented a big problem, as the adoption of the new technology took more time, effort and money than it should to collaborate as a team.

"We are in the middle of a major market transition that is affecting how businesses, globally, work. They are looking for new collaboration experiences that allow people to work together seamlessly anywhere, on any device, with any content,” explained Wael Abdulal, collaboration manager of Cisco (News - Alert) UAW.

“Subsequently, we are finding that Cisco's collaborative technology solutions are making a vital impact across a number of industry sectors and vertical markets throughout the Middle East region. We are therefore delighted to be collaborating with strategic partners like BT to deliver an increasing portfolio of solutions ranging from IP communications to mobility, customer care, Web conferencing, messaging, enterprise social software, and interoperable TelePresence experiences all of which are helping to bring the value of true anytime anywhere collaboration."

These are inevitably problems that have been faced by many companies when seeking to adopt unified communications and collaboration. It takes a while for new technologies to catch on, but companies must be willing to make the initial investment, and employees must similarly be willing to try the new technologies.

UC&C is beginning to spread through there, slowly but steadily, and many businesses are working to address the roadblocks to UC&C adoption. All it needs is a little time and effort.

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