BT business roundtable sheds light on adoption of unified - AME Info

A recent study, commissioned by BT, found a growing appetite for unified communications globally, with conference calls - audio and video - becoming almost as ubiquitous as formal meetings. Yet despite the adoption of new technology, those polled said it is taking too much time, effort and money to collaborate, access data and work as a team. More than half (56%) of executives say slow decision-making by managers and colleagues is the biggest problem they face at work.

The findings of this global survey and how it resonates in the Middle East were discussed last Thursday at an event in Dubai on local trends, adoption and roadblocks in the deployment of unified communications in the region. The business roundtable, organised by BT in collaboration with its technology partners, Microsoft and Cisco, provided an excellent platform for sharing of latest practice and experience for local and regional businesses.

Speakers at the event included Wael El Kabbany, General Manager, BT Middle East and North Africa, Fayyaz Alam, Vice President IT Production, Emirates Group, Andrew Small, BT Vice President Unified Communications and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Wael Abdulal, Collaboration Technologies, Cisco and Taimoor Husain, Global Business Lead, Unified Comms, Microsoft. The event was moderated by Philip McCrum, Editorial Director, The Economist Corporate Network Middle East.

According to the participants, cost is an important driver to the adoption of unified communications and collaboration in the Middle East as well as the ability to find new ways of working for mobile employees.

Wael el Kabbany, Managing Director BT Middle East and North Africa said: BT's vision is to make communications simpler, helping organisations transform the way they collaborate internally and the way they interact with their customers, partners and suppliers. We see a growing need for unified communication and collaboration solutions in the region as a result of increasing cost pressure and the usage of private devices in the work environment. We are glad we could have this open discussion with our valued customers in the region and with the key partners of our BT One portfolio"

Wael Abdulal, Collaboration Manager, Cisco UAE commented, "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. 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."

Taimoor Husain, Global Business Lead Unified Comms, Microsoft Corp. said: "Microsoft's strategy for Unified Communications revolves around providing best in class user experiences for Instant Messaging, Presence, Telephony, Messaging, Video, Conferencing and Collaboration. We provide a single interface across multiple devices, with seamless access to these services from anywhere, whether in the office, at home or travelling around the world, enabling mobile workers to have a highly productive environment. We want our platform to bring people together, across businesses - through federation and to consumers via Skype. We are very excited about partnering with BT, and leveraging their decades of experience to provide voice services globally, to extend the reach of our platform and BT's infrastructure and provide exceptional value and the most innovative technology to our customers"

Philip McCrum, Editorial Director, CEMEA Economist Corporate Network said: "BT's event was both timely and topical, in that it tapped into the growing debate we are witnessing among companies in the region over how to collaborate effectively, both internally and externally, as the business environment becomes more mobile and flexible and technology continues to multiply the communication tools at our disposal."

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/bt-business-roundtable-sheds-light-adoption-322372

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