Unified Communications 2.0: The Next Phase of Integrated Business Process

As the economy begins to recover, businesses are looking to next-generation unified communications (UC) solutions to improve customer relations, enhance collaboration, and optimize their workforce. The next phase of UC, dubbed Unified Communications, Collaboration and Contact Center (UC4), is emerging in the marketplace, with vendors like Microsoft, HP, IBM, Cisco, and Alcatel-Lucent leading the charge. UC4 aims to integrate business process software and job functions to match employee roles and timeframes, and to leverage contextualized communications and video conferencing to drive productivity and reduce costs.

Key Takeaways:

79% of companies surveyed by Aberdeen Group achieved a breakeven return on their UC investment within the first 12 months.
UC4 integrates business process software and job functions to match employee roles and timeframes, enabling organizations to treat technologies in isolation.
Video conferencing is becoming a key communications technology, fueled by the need for companies to reduce travel costs and make quicker internal decisions.
High-definition (HD) video conferencing can now be achieved at the click of an icon on a user's desktop.
94% of organizations incorporate laptops, 88% integrate smartphones, and 63% include tablet PCs in their UC strategies.
IT departments are expected to act as internal service providers, complete with service-level agreements and security policies based on employee profiles.
Companies like Sprint Nextel are adopting next-gen UC strategies to reduce maintenance and upgrade costs.

Statistics:

79% of companies surveyed by Aberdeen Group achieved a breakeven return on their UC investment within the first 12 months. (Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2009)
94% of organizations incorporate laptops, 88% integrate smartphones, and 63% include tablet PCs in their UC strategies. (Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2009)
Sprint Nextel Corp. spent $2 million annually on maintenance and upgrade costs for UC, which was expected to take 6 years to break even with a $19 million VoIP strategy. (Source: Sprint Nextel Corp.)

Sources:

Aberdeen Group, September 2009
Sprint Nextel Corp.