Business Does Not Understand Unified Communications

January 14, 2017

According to Dimension Data there are three reasons why companies are not taking up unified communications (UC).

They cite the implementation of ground work and the costs involved as two of the major problems, but they believe that the main stumbling block is that business simply does not understand what unified communications can offer to a company.

This is according to a survey of CIO’s of large British companies.

Convincing the management board of the benefits of UC is also seen by CIO’s as very much an uphill battle, although over 60% of IT managers were found to be looking to implement UC as part of a growth strategy.

Nearly half of those questioned believed it is the future standard of business communications.

The survey found that managers consider that there are five elements to successful UC deployment:

infrastructure optimisation, infrastructure optimisation, a good security policy, end-user training, a strategic plan, and the backing of the company board.

The survey said that CIO’s struggle to get across the benefits to non-tech savvy board members so their plans are not implemented.

IT managers stated that as far as they are concerned the benefits are:

General cost savings of 10%

Customer satisfaction improved by 20.7%

Productivity improved by 10.4%

Travel costs reduced by 11.7%

Time wastage reduced by 13.1%

Carbon footprint reduced by 14.5%

Unified communications (UC) is a concept whereby business is able to integrate together and thus simplify all of their of communications.

This usually achieved by use of a software program as well as some infrastructure additions and changes.

The concept makes it possible for an employee to either receive or send messages and for the person they are communicating with to receive or send messages with a different device.

A good example is sending a voice mail while out in the field, which is then read in an email at head office, i.e. sent with one type of communication and received on another, unified communication.

The variations on this theme are considerable and set to grow ever more in diversity as technology evolves.