UK businesses miss out on ‘Presence’

December 1, 2016

New research by IT specialist, Dimension Data Plc, has identified that UK companies are failing to benefit from ‘Presence’ technology, which makes it possible to locate and identify a computer as soon as the user connects to the network.

While large UK businesses are adopting Unified Communications (UC) to help improve business productivity and efficiency, and keep costs low, only 47 per cent of them have a UC strategy, and only 23 per cent use presence technology.

According to Rob Stanley, Line of Business Director – Microsoft Solutions at Dimension Data, Presence technology helps companies get the best return from their investment in UC, as it brings it all together from an end-user point of view, and makes it easier to manage communications.

In order to make the best use of presence and UC, enterprises need to centrally manage multiple user-identities.

This significantly improves security, as single, real-time updates on employee access rights and permissions can be implemented.

However, according to Dimension Data’s research, only 18 per cent of the IT managers surveyed understood the importance of identity management.

Stanley said: “To make things easier and less disruptive in the long run, and ensure the full benefits of UC are realised, it’s important that organisations make presence and identity management a top priority from the outset.”

Dimension Data’s study was carried out by independent researchers Vanson Bourne, and involved companies with over 1,000 employees. It was conducted in June 2016.