Survey highlights wish list for communication systems

ShoreTel says top buying criteria includes simplicity, reliability, ease of use and management, reduced costs and easier integration with business processes

VoIP, unified messaging, products and services

ShoreTel announced the results of a recent survey that identifies the latest communications system needs and priorities of CIOs and IT/telecom professionals. The survey was taken from prospective ShoreTel customers, and the 475 participants clearly spelled out many of the issues vendors must address if they are to satisfy customer communication needs.

Among the top buying criteria respondents identified as needed for communication systems: simplicity, reliability, ease of use and management, reduced costs and easier integration with business processes. According to ShoreTel, "The survey also reveals an interesting disparity" because while nearly 81 % of respondents want to simplify their communications system, "only 47%, have actual goals in place to help them achieve this."

UC pays off for Fluor, NHL hockey team

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

ShoreTel announced the results of a recent survey that identifies the latest communications system needs and priorities of CIOs and IT/telecom professionals. The survey was taken from prospective ShoreTel customers, and the 475 participants clearly spelled out many of the issues vendors must address if they are to satisfy customer communication needs.

Among the top buying criteria respondents identified as needed for communication systems: simplicity, reliability, ease of use and management, reduced costs and easier integration with business processes. According to ShoreTel, "The survey also reveals an interesting disparity" because while nearly 81 % of respondents want to simplify their communications system, "only 47%, have actual goals in place to help them achieve this."

UC pays off for Fluor, NHL hockey team

When asked which system capabilities are the most important to IT, the management professionals said they needed ease of use for users, reliability and ease of management. Similarly, the top three ranked requirements identified by users were ease of use, reliability and audio/sound quality. (We were encouraged that IT staff and users highlighted largely the same needs.)

The survey also showed that IT professionals rated the top three highest causes of complexity as integrating communications system with business processes, integrating new equipment with legacy systems, and the number of remote/mobile workers. 

The "biggest management challenges" respondents identified included were: "management time/complexity; costs for moves, adds, and changes; user complaints and difficulties; and inconsistent/incompatible systems, according to survey results.
The respondent results were taken from a variety of represented organizations, with 39% coming from companies with 0 to 49 employees, 39% from companies with 50 to 1,000 employees, and 22% coming from companies with more than 1,000 employees.

Our thanks to ShoreTel for sharing these research results with our readers.

Read more about voip & convergence in Network World's VoIP & Convergence section.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.