Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise survey highlights changes in enterprise communications and collaboration

Research revealed that more than 60% use their mobile phone for email, Internet and instant messaging every day and over 40% used these for social media.

"We have noticed that mobile communications is the norm as consumer behavior crosses over into the enterprise," commented Alain Penel, VP MEA at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise.

"Social Media is increasingly seen as an important part of customer-interaction in the Middle East and Africa. It is a sign of the times that customer communication needs to adapt to this changing environment if a business has to stay in tune with its customers."

Some of the key findings of the survey include:

• 88% believe that social networks are important for customer service and customer relationship management
• 74% believe that social media should be integrated with call centers and the majority of those surveyed thought that operators need to have a complete overview of customer opinion
• 54% of respondents say that their organisations allow employees to use social media at work
• 57% of survey respondents used video calls or video conferencing at least once per week, while 52% made PC-phone calls at least once per week
• 62% took part in web conferencing or webinars at least monthly

At Gitex this year, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is focused on "Changing the Conversation" between partners, customers and employees.

Penel added, "Our new OpenTouch communication platform enables enterprises to respond to the consumerisation of enterprise communications. It supports voice, video, text and instant messaging across smartphones, tablets and PCs with the ability for users to seamlessly move across devices with context - including third-party devices."