Unified communications (UC) is playing an increasingly valuable role for enterprises as it serves to break down silos with a common interface that makes it quicker and easier to get in touch.
So says Paveshen Govender, senior manager for unified communications at Telkom Business, who notes UC systems break down barriers such as geography, communication mode (such as e-mail or instant messaging), device and user accessibility, enabling people to be reached easily anywhere, anytime.
Telkom Business, in partnership with ITWeb, is conducting an online Unified Communications Survey to gain valuable insight and perspective into the current and future demands for UC strategies within South African organisations.
According to Govender, because technologies have merged over the years, UC is set to shift the way business operates. It is, therefore, imperative that organisations have a UC strategy in place, he urges.
"The key business drivers for unified communications typically include business productivity, employee collaboration and cost elimination, together with customer sales and service needs. It, thus, benefits both internal and external processes.
"Tangible business drivers typically involve quantifiable savings in terms of monetary gains. These are motivated by an enterprise's need to reduce or eliminate costs in areas such as travel expenses, cost to communicate, redundant infrastructure and IT staff overheads."
According to Govender, intangible business drivers may not be easily quantified in financial value but are, nonetheless, important.
"They revolve around improved organisational efficiency or employee productivity. They also extend to external gains such as customer acquisition and retention. External gains, although quantifiable, are grouped as intangible business drivers because other factors may influence improvements in this area."
Govender says end-user adoption is the biggest contributing factor for the success or failure of any UC project.
"Another big contributing factor is the lack of senior project sponsorship from top management. The need for unified communications needs to be driven by top management down."
He believes South African organisations are still at the early adoption stages of UC and its overall success will depend on organisations' ability to deliver on the promised benefits in widespread adoption.
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