Dubai: Businesses small and large are adopting more unified communication desktop tools in the workplace to boost efficiency and slash operating costs, say computer services providers.
The move means that some traditional telephony devices are being replaced or augmented by new IT technologies that connect workers via desktops, not universal handsets.
It's not uncommon in recent months, for example, to walk through digitally transformed office floors and not see a single landline-based phone.
Mohammad Swadan, telepresence and video product manager with Cisco in the Middle East, said video software of all kinds emerging on the global market in recent years is changing the traditional corporate world of communications.
"One of the growing trends we're seeing is that corporations are adopting video and telepresence. It is a trend that is picking up a lot," Swadan told Gulf News.
Back in the day of jetsetting business travel at its peak, the business community was forced to gather at global corporate centres half way around the world.
Virtual meetings
Today, with communications tunnelling along high-bandwidth cables at the speed of light, video phone calls and teleconferencing can connect business and their clients in virtual meetings with the click of a mouse.
And in contrast to tele-phone conference calls, group video conference communications provides the face-to-face contact seasoned professionals prefer, he said.
"With video, it becomes much more personal because you can see each other," said Swadan. "Body language is of the highest importance."
Companies such as Cisco are seeing requests by corporations for increased video calling increase.
Alok Bapna, general manager of regional sales and technology for Computer Sciences Corporation, said there is a definite shift toward IT-based communications at the corporate level.
"We used to travel across a couple of continents to do business. Now we can do video conferencing. About 80 to 90 per cent of our office uses video now," he said.
To capitalise on a single platform to replace private branch exchange (PBX) telephone systems, Microsoft has rolled out its new Lync Server, a single platform that delivers communications through a software-based approach.
A handful of corporations in the Middle East are already gearing up to install and use Lync in the workplace, a platform that enables users to communicate via desktop using Jabra speakerphones, headsets and touch screens.
Yasir Khokhar, information worker business group lead, Microsoft Gulf, told Gulf News that "we're very excited about the launch in the region".
Khokar called Lync an "evolution of new technology" that under one single platform brings together webconferencing, audio, voice, instant messaging, presence and video.
A handful of corporations in the Middle East, including Emirates Airlines, are gearing up to install and use Lync in the workplace, Kkokar said.
Unification
A study commissioned by Microsoft late last year suggested that corporations can benefit from unifiying its communication tools to increase productivity.
"This single vendor solution can reduce the complexity, uncertainty, and cost of IT and telephony operations and management, while supporting new advances in employee productivity leading to greater business value," said Forrester principal consultant Jeffrey North in his report.
