Unified comms not a necessity

Many Australian businesses can survive without unified communications (UC), according to a new report from analyst firm Ovum.

The report, entitled 'Is unified communications a good fit for your enterprise?', suggests that while some companies may benefit from UC, some may even suffer from an unnecessary deployment.

UC’s real benefit lies in its ability to strengthen interactions between employees, and its integration of communication and collaboration, according to Ovum’s senior analyst, Claudio Castelli.

“UC is scratching the surface of a new paradigm for more purposeful social interaction in organisations,” Castelli’s report read.

According to the report the suitability of UC for a given company depends on several factors.

Different companies will therefore realise different levels of benefit from UC, with some even potentially suffering from an unnecessary system.

These factors include:

• Pressure to develop new products
• Customer/stakeholder intimacy
• Interrelatedness with other organisations
• Reliance on creative processes to solve novel problems
• The culture of internal opportunity
• Reputation flexibility
• Data anonymity