Despite regional differences across APAC, it always comes down to the experience and the application

[James Brennan (James_Brennan)]

I recently returned from a two week trip where I met with customers, partners, and Polycom sales teams in Korea, China, and Singapore.  Being currently based in Melbourne, Australia this was my first trip to each of these countries with Polycom and it was eye opening.  It was interesting to learn about all of the little nuances of how customers use Unified Communications and Collaboration in each country and what they focus on.  It was quite different to what I have been used to in Australia/NZ. 

In China, 1080p60fps is the entry requirement for video collaboration.  If your solution does not support this, you will be lucky to get a second look.  The Chinese like the reliability of hardware and see pure software as risky.  And PSTN conference phones are still a huge part of our business there due to government regulations against public VoIP.

In Korea, separate web-based booking portals are the norm for setting up a video conference.  Everything is booked, and ad hoc collaboration has not taken off yet.  Users expect to walk into the room and for the system to be up and running without any intervention.  IT workers take the place of automation.

And in Singapore, there is a focus on multi-purpose rooms and work spaces due to the high cost of facilities.  Full integration into UC platforms and BYOD strategies is the norm.

But, despite these big differences, one thing remains the same – what creates value for our customers is not any of these specific requirements; it’s the total experience and what can be done with these solutions.  In each country, we work with our customers to show them how we can provide a complete end-to-end experience for their users and how we can apply these to specific national and international business scenarios.  It’s about how we can seamlessly integrate our technology into the way their employees work, and naturally embed remote collaboration into their business.  It’s about how they apply these experiences to transform their business.

So, while the different requirements in each region are important, they are not what determine the success of our customers.  In all cases, it still comes down to finding the right application of UC&C technology and providing a great end user experience.