The Rise Of Personal Communications

Employees are embracing a new type of communication and collaboration dynamic in the form of over-the-top (OTT)-based social media applications, like Skype, Google Hangouts, and Facebook Messenger. Employees expect to use these collaboration channels increasingly in their work environment. IT leaders can't ignore the opportunities for more cost-effective and innovative collaboration features that these social media collaboration platforms offer, but, at the same time, they must weigh the risks these solutions could bring to their organizations in the form of security, compliance breaches, and integration challenges. While consumers search for innovative and fun-to-use communication and collaboration tools in the enterprise environment, IT leaders search for cost-effective collaboration tools. This report, the first of a two-part series, contrasts these two perspectives, with cost reduction being the polarizing factor. The second report will be a Forrester Wave™ evaluation of providers of personal communication in the enterprise context.