| STORY: The ROI of unified communications |
| SIDEBAR: Problems and answers |
| GRAPHICS: UC by the numbers A unified communications architecture |
John wants to get in touch with co-worker Mary on a pressing business matter. He shoots her an instant message, but he doesn't get a response. He calls her desk phone and leaves voice mail, then tries her mobile phone. Finally, John sends an e-mail or Short Message Service message in the hope that she'll read it on her mobile device.
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The result? John was never able to reach Mary and maybe lost a sale as a result. Mary now has messages in multiple places that she must retrieve and delete.
The problem isn't that John and Mary lack communication devices. Quite the opposite -- they have too many ways of communicating and those methods are not unified.
These disjointed applications make communications more complex, leading to frustration and reduced efficiency. And it's only getting worse. Knowledge workers are increasingly distributed and virtual: working from multiple locations.
The answer is unified communications, in which real-time applications are integrated so individuals can manage all their communications together, in both desktop and mobile environments.
Unified communications is certainly moving to the front burner at most companies. According to the 2007 Nemertes benchmark, "Building the Virtual Workplace," 79 of 100 enterprises interviewed were planning to deploy unified communications over the next two years.
And most of the building blocks of a unified-communications architecture are in use at most companies. Ninety-six percent of benchmark participants report the use of at least one tool, such as audio, video, Web conferencing, IM or a presence application.
The challenge for many IT executives is to make the business case for unified communications. This can be tricky, because purported productivity benefits can be hard to quantify.
However, business cases do exist. Companies see unified communications as a way to improve internal communications and increase productivity. There also is the potential for cost savings.
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Copyright 2008 Network World Inc.
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Re: The ROI of unified communications By Anonymous on May 30, 2007, 3:58 pm Reply | Read entire comment Excellent article, I sent to myself to have on hand for future sales calls. As a telephony guy I am really interested in this type of article. I can use this information...
Cost models By Irwin Lazar on June 8, 2007, 8:55 am Reply | Read entire comment Dave. Good to hear from you. We've developed several cost models around VOIP, these are based on real-world price information coupled with the data we've gathered...
Measurement is key to UC ROI By Marty Parker, UCStrategies.com on May 31, 2007, 11:38 pm Reply | Read entire comment Hi, Irwin, Your article is right on target in pointing to specific optimizations of business processes as the basis for Unified Communications ROI. By identifying...
All comments (5)