Telecom firm BT conducted a study and found that executives all over the world want to see more of Unified Communications. UC is trending in many workplaces, but some have been hesitant to start taking advantage of UC products and services. Eighty-four percent of the respondents said that unified communications helped them be more successful by taking advantage of combining IM, email, phone, video, and telepresence.
The survey involved over 1000 executives all across the globe, working is in large enterprises in various industries. The survey was done to study the attitudinal and behavioral factors in working cultures and roles of influential groups in the workforce. What they found however, was a demand for more UC. Respondents felt it takes too much time, effort and money to spread data across a team and that UC helps with that. Slow decision making is the biggest problem they face, and the faster the information can flow between workers and departments, the quicker those decisions get made.
Poor communication is a problem in every workplace. In fact, the study revealed that a typical business executive loses 134 minutes per day due to poor communication. That is 25% of a standard 8-5 day (minus lunch). If you are paying a top level manager 100k a year, that’s $25,000 a year that is being wasted. Sure implementing Unified Communications may seem costly at first, but think of how much you will be saving in the long run if these figures are even mostly correct.
Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed said that better communication technology, such as teleconferencing equipment, videoconferencing equipment, Bluetooth headsets, and software, helped them manage their time better. Sixty percent said these technologies improved their control over their work.
UC technologies have been increasing in many foreign countries over the past several months. India and Asia have been the largest adopters, India spending over $500 million in 2011. Part of this is due to increased work hours, sometimes going till 8 or 9 at night. In fact, 51% of Indian businessman surveyed claimed to still be working after 8pm. Having UC systems allows employees to head home sooner, and still stay in contact and get their work done. Less US and UK respondents claimed to be working after the hours of 8pm (22% and 26% respectively).
UC is bigger than we give it credit for. It isn’t a fad that is going away. It is the future of technology, the future of the workplace. It’s bigger than Silicon Valley, bigger than California, bigger than the US; it is global.