UCC’s ROI Success Entails Employee Profiling, Adoption—Study Says
UCC’s ROI Success Entails Employee Profiling, Adoption—Study Says by UCStrategies Staff
Solutions and services provider Dimension Data has released the findings of a study commissioned from consultancy firm Ovum. According to the Dimension Data 2013 Global UCC Study, majority of large enterprises do not incorporate user profiling in their unified communications and collaboration (UCC) plans. Surveying and profiling employees, the study claims, are essential to attaining ROI success in UCC.
The study uncovered that, in large organizations, UCC growth, as well as the direction of BYOD initiatives, is threatened by the missing crucial step: user profiling. Only 38 percent of large enterprises reported profiling their employees. For those who skipped the profiling step, around 20 percent indicated that they simply had not thought of doing it, 21 percent believed that the employees shared the same requirements, and 13 percent failed to see the value of profiling their employees.
The survey respondents consisted of more than 1,320 enterprise IT decision-makers and 1,390 employees from a range of industry verticals in 18 countries, including the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South Africa.
More than 78 percent of the IT decision-makers polled reported having an existing plan and budget to apply “select components” of UCC. Moreover, 43 percent said that they have a budget for implementing “most components” of UCC, while 42 percent of the IT decision makers said that they have a budget to go on with investment in “all or most aspects” of UCC.
Over the next two years, enterprise IT decision-makers are expected to spend $53 million on services supporting UCC efforts. According to Dimension Data, this spending can be placed at risk if there is no user adoption.
“Of those IT decision-makers who had made major UCC investments in the past two years, a high 61% cited measurable cost savings, employee uptake and employee productivity,” said Craig Levieux, group general manager for Converged Communications at Dimension Data. “This sends a strong message to organisations that don't recognise unified communications as a strategic productivity and cost-saving weapon.”
Levieux said that, without employee profiling, a mismatch happens between the organization’s UCC aspirations and those of their employees. “This lack of employee awareness could pose a risk to the success of those UCC investments on today's boardroom agendas – especially since decision-makers expressed that they are basing their UCC investments on improved business processes and productivity,” Levieux explained.
Levieux also said that getting employee feedback is critical for organizations seeking to create or refresh a UCC undertaking. When employees introduce their personal devices in the workplace, “a gap in understanding between decision-makers and employees could come at a very real cost.” Levieux attributes this to user uptake, which he considers a critical success factor for UCC investments. He pointed out the case of UCC applications being delivered to employees who expect support for multiple devices and applications that go with their personal requirements.
Other findings of Dimension Data’s global UCC survey include the following: the challenge of BYOD must be addressed as part of the overall enterprise mobility planning; standard unified communications, mobile UC clients, and social collaboration are vital; the cloud will come, but in the meantime, managed UCC is here; and both business process and agility are as important as cost. (KOM) Link. Link. Link.