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Nortel: Hong Kong SMBs Want Better Communications, SMBWorld-Nortel Survey Reveals; Unified Communications Capabilities Highly Desired To Boost Efficiency, Cut Costs
(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
RDATE:24032009
HONG KONG - A majority of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) believe
their communications systems leave a lot of room for improvement and
half want systems that are easier to use, according to the results of a
new survey of Hong Kong IT decision makers sponsored by Nortel* [TSX:
NT, OTC: NRTLQ].
The survey, conducted by SMBWorld and Nortel, polled more than 150 IT
decision makers across the territory, more than half of whom work in
companies with 100 or fewer employees. The respondents include
professionals in IT and communications, banking and finance,
manufacturing, retailing, import and export. All were asked about their
perceptions of their existing communications systems, major areas of
expenditures, and interests and needs for future communication systems.
Unified communications - enables voice, video, email, presence, instant
messaging (IM) and other forms of communication - ranked high on the
list of desired capabilities.
Among the survey findings:
- More than 80 percent of the respondents believe current internal and
external communication systems leave room for improvement. Nearly 50
percent wanted a more seamless experience for their increasingly mobile
workers, who want to reach and be reached effortlessly, whether they
are in or out of the office.
- Nearly 75 percent want solutions integrated with enterprise resource
planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and other core
systems to improve customer service capabilities by giving staff quick
access to both the data they need, and the people to whom it relates.
Some companies would like more flexible communications that are tailor
made to suit the unique needs of their particular industry - such as
the VoIP-based call handling system that has improved productivity for
traders.
- Almost half of respondents said employees need mobile office
capabilities. UC ensures employees never miss a call by seamlessly
routing calls and messages to desktop, notebook, or mobiles as
appropriate.
- UC is gaining traction among local businesses. Twelve percent are
already using corporate IM solutions and 16 percent of respondents
already have full UC systems - with another 30 percent planning to
adopt UC in the near future. UC is seen as improving employee
efficiency and reducing international calling costs, as well as
providing new capabilities to enhance core business and customer
systems.
"The results of this survey confirm that Hong Kong's small and medium
businesses are rapidly realizing the benefits of unified
communications," said Roy Wakim, leader, Enterprise Voice, Nortel Asia.
"Their communications needs are no longer being met by conventional PBX
systems, and they see UC as a key way of improving efficiency and
helping them to do more with less. Nortel's SMB solutions, including
the Business Communications Manager (BCM) 450 and Software
Communication System (SCS), meet this need by providing feature-rich,
cost-effective UC solutions that can deliver big savings for even the
smallest company."
Nortel's fastest-selling IP telephony solution ever, BCM 450 , provides
UC capabilities such as message forwarding, teleconferencing for up to
120 participants, CTI, intelligent contact center capabilities, and
energy savings up to 40 percent over competing solutions - while
allowing companies with Norstar systems to preserve up to 70 percent of
their original communications investment. The SCS solution is a highly
scalable, software-based
UC product built on open standards and available on leading hardware
server platforms from IBM, Dell and HP. It's aimed at boosting
productivity, efficiency, flexibility, and mobility while offering cost
savings for companies with 30 to 1000 employees.
About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities
that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our
customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider
and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical
applications. Nortel's technologies are designed to help eliminate
today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying
networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they
need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the
world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com.
For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.
*Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel
Networks.
CONTACT: Zoe Chan. Nortel
Tel: +852 2100 4375
e-mail: zoechan@nortel.com
WWW: http://www.nortel.com
((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information
provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties.
Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at
http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to
info@m2.com)).
Copyright ? 2009 M2 Communications Ltd.
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