The State Of UC In The Workplace
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Unified communications market is diversifying quickly, but many offices fail to integrate tools
Tools like Slack are taking the workplace by storm, transforming workplace communications habits in the process. While the market for unified communications (UC) tools is diversifying quickly, a new report found many offices fail to integrate audio and Web conferencing tools, leaving a niche in the marketplace that needs to be filled.
In a recent survey of more than 250 IT managers, West Unified Communications Services set out to learn what UC technologies they were providing for their employees, what motivated the adoption of certain tools, and what their future plans for UC investments and implementations included.
The analysis found audio and Web conferencing tools remain the leading technologies adopted by IT managers. The top six UC tools were audio conferencing (79 percent), Web conferencing (76 percent), IM/presence (73 percent), video conferencing (68 percent), screen sharing (67 percent) and social collaboration (43 percent).
According to the findings, video conferencing represents the biggest segment for market growth over the next three years, as 36 percent of IT managers reported they plan to add or expand these capabilities. Video conferencing is still an underutilized source of value for many companies, making it a great opportunity for vendors.
One reason for this underutilization is that respondents cited video conferencing platforms as among the most difficult technologies to maintain. Vendors who are trying to roll out new enterprise communications tools to new clients need to begin by building a business case for how the technology will strengthen the company and make end-users and central processes more efficient.
Integration is also a crucial factor for successful implementation of UC platforms, particularly as an organization adds more platforms. The survey found that 67 percent of respondents said their organization’s employees can automatically forward incoming calls to their mobile device, while only 50 percent reported that staff can access work voicemail via e-mail. Compatibility between tools is in high demand from today’s tech-savvy employees, and those organizations who do not meet these demands could see a negative impact.
Significantly, the study also found that productivity and prompt adoption outweighed costs and vendor loyalty as drivers or deterrents of investment in new UC tools. According to the survey, the top reason for delaying UC deployment was that a technology isn’t a “must have” priority (52 percent). Meanwhile, less than 25 percent of IT managers cited cost as a primary reason to put off implementation. On the flip side, most respondents said increased productivity is solid grounds for investment.
New offerings are emerging almost daily, like self-healing, software-defined networking by Nectar and Cisco, or high-performance unified communications headsets by Sennheiser. As the UC market continues to grow and innovate, technology price points will likely drop, reducing budget barriers to adoption for smaller organizations.
“Few businesses are in the position (nor would it be wise) to roll out a suite of cutting-edge UC tools at once. But by staying attuned to employees’ communications challenges and the organization’s needs over time, IT leaders can develop UC environments that deliver returns and results,” the report said.
And relationships with vendors are not enough to guarantee adoption of a particular product. In fact, the report said, “Ultimately, a quality product trumps brand relationships. More than half of IT leaders believe that relying on best-of-breed communication and collaboration tools is more important than adopting tools from the same vendor. Just 15 percent of respondents prioritize maintaining vendor continuity over leading solutions.”