Industry news

Unified comms 'will become standard'

Half of companies think unified communications will be the standard form of corresponding in the future as they deliver cost reductions.

A survey from Dimension Data of 100 IT managers and chief information officers has found many firms think the technology offers productivity improvements and cost savings.

Unified communications bring together voice, email, fax, instant messaging, videoconferencing and web collaboration, with many firms saying the practice improves costs by ten per cent.

Mike Robinson, converged communications director at Dimension Data, told ComputerWorld: "One business reported a 15 per cent increase in revenues as a result of unifying their communications. It's no wonder that the majority of IT managers we talked to see it as crucial to growth."

Of the half of respondents who had unified communications in place, over a fifth said an improvement had been seen in customer satisfaction, with 60 per cent saying it was key to supporting growth in their firm.

Bob Hersch, recently writing in eWeek, said businesses must find the right time to adopt unified communications, when it is right for their firm.