Time To Revisit Your Unified Communications Priorities

Unified communications (UC) continues to expand, according to Forrester's 2010 survey of telecom decision-makers in North America and Europe. UC is the enabling platform for the integration of communications and collaboration to improve business processes and employee productivity. As a result, it's a key underpinning for I&O execs, transforming the desktop experience and empowering users. Although growth in UC technology slowed during 2009 due to the economic downturn, Forrester's survey indicates that an increasing percentage of companies will go forward with purchase plans. While most business decision-makers understand the business benefits for UC, there is a mixed response among actual users for realizing its full benefits. Significantly, there was an upswing in the number of companies that would consider the purchase of UC as a service or as a hosted solution as a future option. Adoption of UC is dependent on companies to train their users on the use of this technology and for decision-makers to quantify its benefits. While market growth is improving, newer cloud service offerings may be a significant factor in its longer term success.