Poland and Hungary Drive Unified Communications Adoption in CEE, Says Frost & Sullivan

LONDON, March 17, 2010 - Telecommunications is one of the most rapidly developing sectors in
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This is also one of the industries that has
attracted the largest amount of foreign direct investment (FDI). The industry
is rapidly adopting Western European standards, therefore world-class service
and high-quality telecommunication products need to be offered to meet local
business customer expectations. Unified communications (UC), which offer
better productivity, increased efficiency and improved customer service,
while not yet widely deployed, is becoming increasingly popular in the CEE
region. Poland and Hungary, the two largest regional markets outside Russia,
are the leaders in unified communications adoption.

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"EU membership has gradually opened up the economies of the CEE
countries, increasing competition between regional businesses and foreign
companies," says Dorota Oviedo, Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst from
Unified Communications and Collaboration group. "Competitive pressure, as
well as the ever-increasing number of mobile and multitasking employees,
force local companies to look for new ways of cost saving and enhancing
productivity. "

The ability to communicate effectively with people inside and outside an
organisation has become crucial in building a competitive advantage. UC tools
enhance employees' collaboration, and availability "anytime, anywhere"
enables businesses to deliver the best services in the shortest time.

"Multinational organisations with offices in the CEE region were among
the first to deploy UC in order to extend and unify their communication
systems," adds Oviedo. "Nevertheless, there are also local early adopters -
both large enterprises and medium-sized companies." Public administration
organisations have shown strong interest as well, especially as they are
looking to modernise their ICT infrastructure, taking advantage of European
Union funds.

A good example is Bydgoszcz City Council in Poland, where the UC solution
deployment brought many organisational improvements, including "anywhere,
anytime" access to information and communications in a secure environment
with business continuity upgrades. It also enabled the flexibility of mobile
working, thus employees are no longer desk-bound. Productivity gains in
everyday City Council work also translate into better European Union funds
management and usage - one of the priorities for the city of Bydgoszcz.
"Additionally, investors have easier access to relevant public administration
officers thereby shortening the procedures and speeding the decision making
process," says Dorota Oviedo.

The CEE region offers substantial market potential for UC vendors.
However, at present, only a few UC deployments have been completed. The
current economic environment has strongly affected local investment plans,
and many Eastern European enterprises have decided to delay their deployment
projects.

Many of the vendors interviewed by Frost & Sullivan, showcased mainly
recent examples of successful advanced contact centres deployments, but only
a few of actual company-wide UC adoptions.

The contact centre market is continuously growing in the region with many
Greenfield investments. "Improvement of customer service, coupled with other
benefits achieved by the early adopters among contact centres, will likely
trigger broader UC adoption in the enterprise environment in the coming
years," concludes Oviedo.

If you would like to know more about Unified Communications Market in CEE
region or/and in Europe, please contact Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate
Communications, at Joanna.lewandowska@frost.com. Please, include your full
name, company name, title and contact details.

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    Contact:
    Joanna Lewandowska
    Corporate Communications - Europe
    P: +48-22-390-41-46
    E: joanna.lewandowska@frost.com

www.frost.com

Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications - Europe, Frost & Sullivan, +48-22-390-41-46, joanna.lewandowska at frost.com