By AMIT ROY CHOUDHURY

PROFESSIONALS in the Asia-Pacific region tend to adopt technology rather more quickly than their European or US counterparts, and they apply it across a wider breadth of the organisation, according to a Frost & Sullivan study.

The study, Meetings Around the World II (MAW II), sponsored by Verizon Business and Cisco, looks at the use of Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) technologies by businesses across the globe, Verizon's Andrew Dobbins told BizIT.

Asia-Pacific professionals feel that communication technologies give them better control over their lives, and allow for a balance between life and work, noted Mr Dobbins, Asia-Pacific regional VP for Verizon Business.

'These professionals are most concerned about the security of their information when using communication technologies. However, they like to work on projects with teams, and accept that conferences can be a good alternative to face-to-face meetings.'

A closer examination reveals sharp differences in how people prefer to collaborate remotely, he added.

The study found, for example, a notable preference among Asia-Pacific professionals for instantaneous versus asymmetric communications afforded by collaborative technologies such as phone, email and instant messaging.

These different regional preferences highlight an impetus for greater cultural understanding to improve collaborative efforts on a global basis, he said.

Elaborating further, Mr Dobbins noted that in Europe, professionals like to work from the office, as opposed to working from home.

'They are least likely to multi-task while on a conference call, and prefer face-to-face meetings and business travel over using conference calls for the same.'

The Verizon official added that, in contrast, the US market has the highest percentage of people, among all the regions, who believe that they lead busy professional lives and would readily substitute communication technologies for business travel.

'They feel that conferences are good alternatives to face-to-face visits, and prefer them because of increasing hassles and safety concerns associated with air travel,' Mr Dobbins said.

The US professionals have also highlighted that they like the ability to telecommute, and if possible, would do most of their work from home.

There is also the culture of safeguarding their privacy, often sending calls to voice mail or to disconnect instant messaging so as not to be disturbed, he added.

In the Asia-Pacific, there is the general consensus that communication technologies give professionals better control over their lives - 'which is much the opposite of the US professionals utilising voice mails and disconnecting from instant messaging for privacy issues', Mr Dobbins said.

Both the US and Asia-Pacific embrace conferences as a good alternative to face-to-face meetings and this is prevalent even when projects call for a team effort.

The key players in the Asia-Pacific market in the use of communication technologies are China and India.

'China is embracing UC&C in a big way with 89 per cent using some form of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) as their primary phone service. India sees the biggest return on their collaboration investment with the lowest average spend on UC&C.'

The Verizon official cited other major findings of the survey:

# Almost half (44 per cent) of all organisations have deployed UC&C tools, and of those companies who have yet to deploy, 80 per cent plan to do so over the next 2-3 years

# 70 per cent of those companies that have deployed UC&C tools report that they are more successful than their peer companies who have yet to deploy.

# 40 per cent of current UC&C adopters plan to increase spending despite the uncertain economy.

Mr Dobbins noted that the most striking contrast in this study, compared to that done in 2006, was that an organisation's Culture and Structure - essentially how open to collaboration an organisation is - is a stronger determinant of collaboration quality now (74 per cent) than it was in 2006 (58 per cent).

'At the same time, the role of technology is slightly less (13 per cent versus 21 per cent). This means that how an organisation uses its collaboration technology is critical to realising the benefits of collaboration.'

Mr Dobbins noted that advanced collaboration tools were most widely deployed in the financial services, technology and professional services verticals.

'A major contributing factor is the sheer speed and intensity at which these verticals operate.'

Other verticals, such as healthcare and pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and retail, have also deployed UC&C on a slightly less widespread basis, he added.

Government organisations, on the other hand, tend to be more conservative.

'The results indicate that many of them have not deployed or are uncertain if they have deployed UC&C technology, as compared to those that are certain that they have deployed UC&C technology.'

The Verizon official noted that, overall, effective collaboration improves business performance.

'The more advanced IP-enabled collaboration tools are deployed, the greater the return on collaboration businesses will achieve,' Mr Dobbins added.

This article was first published in The Business Times.