One of the key points of unified communications is that it enables effective collaboration — or “working better together”. But here’s the rub: “working together better” has no intrinsic business value. It only has value to the extent that it adds revenue or drops overhead. (Or keeps you out of court.)
As with any other technology, in other words, collaboration is only useful to the degree that it enables new dollars (increased top-line revenue), saved dollars (decreased spend) or forced dollars (dollars that must be spent for security or compliance reasons).
Much of the time, the benefits of unified communications and collaboration kick in at the top line: these tools help make more money by making your sales or service folks nimbler, more effective, or both. IT folks tell us their sales teams sign more deals when they can wring latency out of the business cycle (and thereby shorten sales cycles and improve close rates). Another benefit is reducing travel time, such as for trips back to the home office to input data or gather additional information.
An ROI model we call “just-in-time fetch-the-expert” enables organizations to track some of these benefits, specifically those pertaining to complex sales. With this model, companies can track how much faster they can close business if the salesfolk don’t have to scramble to locate an expert who can answer a prospect’s questions in real time. In many cases, the benefits from a single high-end sale can more than justify equipping an entire salesforce with the appropriate tools (typically some combination of presence, mobility and real-time communications dashboards).
However, there’s a catch. Remember that nobody takes IT seriously when it comes to the ability to drive business (a mistake, in my view, but that’s how it is). So unless IT can convince lines of business that the benefits are for real, this business case won’t fly.
How to make it happen? The trick is to work closely with the business lines to business lines to validate the top-line benefits to figure out what that percentage might be for them, and piloting implementations to let them confirm it. At that point, IT folks can go arm-in-arm with the happy business leaders to request additional funding.
“Just-in-time-fetch-the-expert” isn’t the only collaborative business case, of course. Mobile applications, presence and conferencing may be a way to cut roundtrips from prospect or customer meetings — saving on travel expenses. And there’s even a green angle: less travel means a lower carbon footprint.
Effective use of collaboration tools can also result in facilities savings, because these tools enable an organization to place offices in low-cost locations while maintaining the ability to work as teams. And once again, this may reduce employee travel costs and carbon footprint — helping to meet green goals.
The bottom line: If you’re looking at collaboration tools, the business lines will be your most important allies for talking about revenue boosts, but don’t forget to talk to your CFO, HR office, and the corporate responsibility/sustainability/green czar to talk about the potential savings and other benefits.
