* Avaya survey reveals that businesses are most interested in integrating and optimizing communications technologies and methods
At times, we point our readers to online analysis we consider noteworthy, and today we’d like to highlight a recent independent survey and report commissioned by the International Avaya User Group and conducted by Steven Taylor and David DeWeese of the Webtorials Analyst Division. The report is titled “2009 Business Communications Drivers: Integration, Optimization, and Cost Reduction Drive Investments in Business Communications.”
Members of Avaya’s user groups were sampled in a February 2010 survey about business communications requirements and investments and over 700 IT professionals responded. About 82% of the survey respondents were from the United States, with 9% in Canada. Roughly 51% of the responses came from representatives in the healthcare/pharmaceutical, higher education, government and financial sectors although users from other industries such as manufacturing, insurance and telecommunications also responded in single-digit percentages.
Among the key findings the survey and analysis found:
* Businesses are most interested in integrating and optimizing communications technologies and methods; 40% or respondents indicated that users in their company wanted improved integration of e-mail, IM, voice and conferencing technologies, and 37% seek improved integration and access for mobile or remote workers.
* Businesses plan to make new investments in IP telephony (IPT) and unified communications (UC) to meet their integration goals– 85% intend to make significant investments in business communications over the next 12 months.
* Green IT technologies continue to draw interest for their own sake and for the associated cost reductions; 22% of respondents consider environmental implications “very important.”
* The desire to integrate communications and provide support for mobile employees continues to drive interest in UC — 67% of the those surveyed have or will have begun deploying UC within two years.
* Investments in contact centers are focused on agent productivity and the enablement of IP and/or SIP based solutions, and 42% of those surveyed plan to make significant investments in contact center technology.
More survey results including more detailed demographics, a further breakdown of business drives and investments by category and the corresponding analysis can be found here. Our thanks to Avaya for commissioning the study and sharing the results.
