Unified communications awareness has significantly increased in the business environment and is set to increase even more in the near future.
So says Andy Bull, director of Mitel, commenting on the results of the ITWeb/Mitel Unified Communications Survey, which ran online for 14 days in February and attracted 104 respondents.
The term 'unified communications' covers many different communication areas, including instant messaging, presence awareness, conferencing, collaboration and mobility.
"The biggest benefit of unified communications is the flexibility and productivity enhancements that are gained from location-independent working," says Bull.
According to the survey results, the majority of respondents (68%) were clear on the benefits of unified communications and Bull foresees this figure increasing within the next two years, as it is high on the agendas of CIOs. Only 11.34% said they were uncertain of the benefits of unified communications.
The survey also revealed that 50% of respondents work from home, either during or after business hours, which underlines knowledge workers' requirements for access to enterprise communication tools from anywhere, at any time.
"Location-independent working requires a change in mindset from line managers to outcomes-based performance metrics, as opposed to punctuality and office presence-based metrics," continued Bull.
Adopting unified communications
When asked to define the extent of adoption of unified communications within their organisations, 31.96% of respondents stated it was extensive, 24.74% said it was limited, and 22.68% had only just started.
"Organisations can complete their adoption of unified communications in one go or in phases," says Bull, "and they can quite easily decide whether to deploy extensively within their organisations or to initially target key individuals to gain the quick wins. However, the ultimate aim is to proliferate unified communications company-wide."
Bull says user training is vitally important to the successful delivery of any unified communications project.
According to the survey results, timescales for the deployment of unified communications varied, with 34.02% having no plans yet, 30.93% having already deployed, and 13.4% planning to deploy unified communications within the next 12 months.
Share