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Survey finds UC implementations have doubled this year. Why are more companies adopting now?
Is there a compelling reason more companies are looking at Unified Communications now? Has the technology matured? The survey also found that mobility is driving UC. Do you think mobility will continue to drive UC adoption?
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4 Answers
I am seeing a similar uplift in discussions, contracts and projects. I think that the reason is a simple one, and that there are very few early adopters out there, and most organisations simply monitor what is being done and where, before making the decison to move.
We have to remember that to create a UC strategy takes time. There are blockers such as budget and resource. Some UC projects can be very large and have many touchpoints, which means lots of planning.
These things just take time for organisations to get to deployment. Just look at how few have moved to SIP trunks!
I think that most organisations understand the benefits and reasons for deploying UC, and we will see a continual upward curve towards UC being a defacto standard.
Good answers here, esp related to contact center issues. Mobile UC is coming into its own now as the second wave driving adoption. The first wave was for fixed endpoints - office phones, home office phones, soft phones and PC-based web apps. Mobility helps extend the value prop, with FMC being one of the first modes for doing this.
The second wave, so to speak, comes from the explosion of smart phones, and most recently, tablets. That's what's really driving mobile UC, along with the fact that mobile operators are finally catching up to demand by building out their networks and deploying 4G and LTE. That's the true enabler for mobile UC, and once operators fully migrate from CDMA, 2G and 3G, this will become a standard element of all UC offerings.
Part of the reason that these types of projects are occurring now, is that some organizations are finally seeing some economic growth after 2-3 years of stagnation, and they are looking at projects that either help them save some costs, or enable efficiency in their Sales or Customer Service teams.
Plus, they may have equipment that is now coming up for renewal or has completed the depreciation cycle, and they are ready for what is new and will add some value.
I think this is a classic snowball effect. UC allows an organization to do some really great things with call centers particularly around multi-channel CRM. It also tends to drive down costs. One major obstacle however, is that legacy systems and dirty, proprietary data sources tend to throw a monkey wrench into the works especially with CRM, ICD, and IVR integrations.
However, once one or two organizations get it running, they have a significant edge and this places a great deal of pressure on their competitors to get with it. Suddenly something that was rather low on the list of priorities is now a major initiative as the others play catch-up. In addition, UC technology itself has matured and underlying data rates have increased to the point where its value and reliability are about ready for prime time.
Finally, I certainly believe that mobility is a major driver of UC adoption. Multi-channel CRM is all about being accessible to the customer where they are. Skyrocketing smart phone and mobile device usage mean that customers increasingly expect service via text, email, and/or chat, and it needs to be just as complete as if they called in on a phone. UC is the straightest path to that point.
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