Video and Unified Communications Growing in India

In India, unified communications has been seeing more and more adoption, regardless of the size and sector of the companies using it. Surprisingly, the economic slowdown that has caused many businesses to be more cautious in adopting new technology has had the opposite effect there, as UC is viewed as a solution to their business woes. Within UC itself, what’s growing the most is the use of video, which even small companies are now finding to be useful and affordable.

With tools such as cloud computing and Scalable Video Coding (SVC), companies can run high quality video over standard broadband connections and across a variety of devices. It’s become an affordable option for many businesses, which have begun integrating video into their collaboration tools to enjoy all the benefits it offers.

Of course, the types of services used vary from company to company, often depending on size. While large enterprises may pay for feature-filled and secure on-premise solutions, medium-sized ones go for security and features at a lower cost through hosted solutions. Small ones with little room in the budget for video often use free tools like FaceTime and Skype (News - Alert), which may not be as feature-filled as the others, but still provide effective video communication.

Regardless of size, though, there are some desires that remain the same no matter what. High quality video is a must, as is the ability to use it on one’s device of choice from anywhere. 3G and 4G networks and BYOD have made the latter at least more possible, but there is still work to be done. Perhaps most importantly: they want it to be affordable. No matter how good video is, if one is spending more on it than they’re saving, it’s not worth the cost.

Still, there’s no denying the benefits that video has provided. Whether it’s interacting with clients overseas, connecting in real-time, or communicating with co-workers while on the go, it’s become a key part of collaboration and unified communications. Indian companies of all sizes are using video to solve their communication woes and save money, there’s no reason why businesses elsewhere shouldn’t.