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UC 'should be used to increase business agility'

Organisations considering installing a unified communications (UC) system should do so to increase business agility, not as an attempt to reduce their costs.

A recent Gartner survey of 300 organisations revealed that employee collaboration, increased productivity and improved customer services are considered the three most important benefits of UC among early adopters.

According to the analyst, lower total cost of ownership was the least-mentioned benefit, despite the fact that it was the No. 1 expectation among companies which have yet to deploy UC, along with lower equipment costs.

Steve Blood, research vice president at Gartner, noted: "It is evident that there is a significant difference between the expectations of UC and its actual benefits. We recommend that organisations build a business case based on enabling mobility and agility rather than on reducing IT department costs."

According to IT infrastructure provider Ensynch, Unified Communications is now seen as a crucial service by chief information officers looking to boost productivity and improve customer service responses. It estimates that there has been a 50 percent rise in UC implementations in the last six months.

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