Companies’ need to control costs coupled with multiple work places and growing competition are some of the reasons why businesses in the South Asia and Middle East region are adopting unified communications, including Web conferencing solutions, a new report found.

 

The Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) report found that growth in India, the largest buyer of UC applications, for example is expected to grow at a pace of 7.9 percent at a CAGR between 2008 and 2015.

 

Meanwhile, IP telephony is growing in the Sri Lankan market and is predicted to outpace the demand for traditional telephony.  Conferencingand collaboration tools applications - particularly video conferencing - is gaining ground with the government, the report said. The market is expected to grow 12.2 percent at a CAGR through 2015.

 

As a result, companies like The Conference Group (News - Alert) are benefitting. The company, which provides audio, Web and video conferencing services, said the tools are becoming more popular, especially during an economic downturn, because they organizations reduce travel costs. The technology also helps firms increase employee efficiency.

 

With its video conference technology, The Conference Group can introduce new products to retailers, and vendors who may not close enough to attend a meeting. Users can not only share the product visually, but also share information with attendees in a “meeting” format.

 

 While the recession might have slowed sales in other sectors, it has had a positive impact on the UC market, officials said.

 

“The global economic slowdown is expected to enhance the UC growth path in the short-term,” Palani Batcha, senior research analyst, ICT practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, said in a statement. “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.”