Enterprises Reluctant to Unified Communications
Enterprises Reluctant to Unified Communications by UCStrategies Staff
A survey released at the end of January 2013, by Webtorials IT education company, revealed that so far, a meager 21 percent of enterprises have completely adopted unified communications (UC) services combining email, voice, messaging, and video services.
The survey questioned 200 IT professionals within medium and large enterprise and found that although 57 percent have implemented some UC technology, such as Skype and Google’s video chat, this has actually led to communications within the workplace becoming more ad hoc and less unified.
Constellation Research Inc. analyst Alan Lepofsky claims that UC will become increasingly accepted by enterprises as younger employees expect these tools to be implemented. “Employees who grew up using Google and Facebook expect these types of tools to be available to them,” Mr. Lepofsky said. “They’re going outside of the control of IT now.”
A 2013 survey conducted by software developer BroadSoft indicated that this may be the year that UC finally takes off in business. BroadSoft found that enterprise employees are becoming increasingly frustrated by passive voicemail and email services. The study also revealed that many businesses are seeking UC solutions that are able to combine different services across multiple platforms.
The survey questioned more than 700 enterprise personnel throughout the United States and Europe, covering a wide range of enterprise sectors. The survey indicated that 76 percent of participants were "very keen" or "somewhat keen" to adopt a hosted UC solution that included instant message, web and presence collaboration and mobile integration.
In a January 2013 article, Australian-based NSC Group's head of services, Col Rennie, predicted that this year would be a significant one for the UC industry, at least in part because of an increasing demand for flexibility as enterprises begin to arm to hosted communications solutions such as cloud phone systems.
“While it has been an underlying trend for the past couple of years, the rapid growth in smartphone ownership along with subdued business conditions mean businesses will need cheap and simple ways to communicate effectively with both customers and employees,” Rennie said.
It would seem that the transition to unified communications is already underway and it has the potential to vastly change communication within the workplace. In order to encourage enterprises to adopt such services, providers must be able to offer services that are standardized enough to be used by all businesses and safe enough to give users confidence. (CU) Link