Unified in 2009
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According to one consultant, “As with most tech trends, some corporates/businesses went in blindly, without really analyzing what the costs and benefits of UCC could be — or whether the latter outweighs the former. After all, if everyone’s talking about it, it must be a good thing, right?” For chief technology officers (CTOs), chief information officers (CIOs) and IT directors globally, 2009 has brought dramatically smaller budgets in many areas. web conferencing has the potential to save big money and improve response time of businesses. Also, the minuscule percentage of stay-at-home employees can also benefit from it. Unified communications and collaboration (UCC) software is an integration of communication tools such as e-mail, VoIP, audio and web conferencing, and instant messaging. Most corporates have at least one or two of these toys, but few are truly integrating them to their full advantage. For example, many people still don’t think to forward e-mail to their mobile phones (when possible) or use headsets to take conference calls when they’re away from the office. UCC has the potential to replace a lot of business travel. Think about it — most users have been invited to attend a web conference, but many of them aren’t being proactive by managing their own meetings. (Of course, some of us choose not to let technology suck up all of our energy, but that’s another discussion.) Web conferencing can definitely be a big help in 2009. |
Imagine — no travel delays, no business class costs, no lost equipment, no harried, sleep-deprived employees. Just log in and go. What am I talking about? Web conferencing. Since cost-cutting is undoubtedly keeping IT decision-makers busy (and rightfully too), web conferencing can singularly improve business’s response time and effectiveness in 2009, opine the IT consultants.
(6 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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February 9th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Microsoft has introduced UC platform that combines voice calls, instant messaging, audio conferencing, web conferencing and videoconferencing into a single platform for companies that saves costs and helps teams to work better together. We have it at our work.
Essentially, we now have recorded reduction in costs by introducing voice over IP capability and also have a rich web conferencing technology, helping various country teams to communicate and collaborate without having to travel. In addition, it also supports increased productivity by enabling co-workers to find and communicate with each other, whether they are in the office or on the road
February 6th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Yes Paul…Infact according to an IDC study solutions like virtualisation, cloud computing, unified communication, data centres, storage area networks, network attached storage and service oriented architecture will see a huge demand. The market for virtualisation will grow at a rate of 50 per cent, while software as a service will grow at around 45 per cent and unified communications will see around 25 per cent growth.
We understand, that given the financial crunch, many companies will favour instalment-based investments
February 6th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Businesses and contact centres will increase their investment in Unified Communications (UC) technologies in 2009 despite the global downturn in the economy, reveals an international research study conducted by Datamonitor in conjunction by GN Netcom.
The analyst firm also recommends that companies who currently view the total cost of a UC solution as prohibitive should invest in the accompanying UC hardware such as headsets, which can deliver significant productivity gains but with little financial outlay
February 6th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
In present days of hectic schedules but curtailed budgets ,these devices will definitely get a nod of corporate decision makers.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
I agree. Most organizations will go leaner and meaner as far as their internal IT is concerned. Travel expenses are on a decline and money would get invested in adding bandwidth and new communication tech
February 5th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Indeed. But it could take mindset changes which would take 16-17 years more, imaginably
February 4th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Well, Internet infrastructure is still not strong enough in India to support seamless video conferencing. Compromise on quality and communication failures often cause disappointment during a web conferencing. Though our internet speeds are far better than dial up connections a decade ago, we still have long way to go…