For top services that are managed, UC comes right after BC/DR, managed router and network, and managed security
Organizations increasingly view UC as a way to enable both improved internal productivity and richer customer interactions. The benefits of UC become even more apparent if you look at how businesses have evolved: workers are increasingly distributed, conducting business from branch locations, home offices, coffee shops and partner sites.
These virtual workers rely on UC applications as a way to easily share information, communicate and collaborate with their peers and customers. Yet IT organizations are are struggling to support these collaboration applications in light of decreasing staffs and IT budgets. Eighty-five percent of organizations are working with a decreased or flat budget in 2009, and the outlook for 2010 isn’t much better. And most (67%) organizations are decreasing IT staffs, by 17% on average.
As a result, many organizations lack the staffing and equipment capabilities to effectively manage UC application performance. One option? Outsourced management. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, interest in third-party outsourcing didn’t happen overnight. It’s really been over that last three years that we’ve seen a substantial increase. Sixty percent of organizations say they’ve increased their use of outsourcing this year, and those adopting use an average of four different services.
Of course, the type of services organization use varies. The three top services are managed BC/DR, managed router and network, and managed security. Following closely behind though is managed VoIP, which has increased in the past two years from 14% to 46%.
Right alongside is the interest in managed UC. Thirty-six percent of organizations say they’ll use a third-party to help manage one or more UC applications, including unified messaging, e-mail, instant messaging, audio/video conferencing and Web conferencing.
There are a few reasons more companies are outsourcing UC management in particular. It offers predictable spending, often reduced costs, and frees up internal staff from daily monitoring and management, allowing them to work on more “high-value” projects. The biggest driver, however, is the greater complexity of UC. Many organizations learned from their mistakes with VoIP, when they planned to manage internally, only to discover that although IP telephony is easier to maintain in terms of moves, adds and changes, it’s often more difficult than traditional voice to troubleshoot performance issues. The same holds true with UC — and rather than purchase multiple tools and hire skilled folks at a premium, companies often opt to leave management to a qualified third-party.
If you’re one of the many companies considering this option, service options abound. Vendors, carriers, systems integrators and value-added resellers all offer various forms of managed UC services. More specifically, most organizations that procure managed services rely upon systems integrators, carriers and large, value-added resellers to provide managed services. One-third depends on smaller, regional managed service providers. That number increases to almost 60% for those organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees. Between 15% and 25% get managed services directly from the vendor.
The bottom line? Consider outsourcing UC management. Talk to vendors, peers and advisers for recommendations and remember this: it’s a buyers market for not only product, but services.
