The Importance of Unified Communication

Bangalore: The BT One portfolio has been updated and a range of new services have been launched to address the findings of a global BT survey involving 1,000 executives working in large enterprises across the main industry sectors all around the world. This exclusive survey uncovers new attitudinal and behavioral factors, as well as impacts, linked to changes in the working cultures and to the roles of influential groups within the workforce, reports CIO.

The survey shows, for example, that the rate of adoption of unified communications is higher in the growing economies in Asia and Latin America than it is in the challenged economies of Europe. It also shows a potential link between management effectiveness and the faster decision making processes allowed by technology. The survey shows that younger executives gain a competitive advantage within the organization by being most eager to leverage the potential of unified communications.

Executives globally say it is taking too much time, effort and money to collaborate, access data and work as a team. And 56 percent of executives say slow decision-making by managers and colleagues is the biggest problem they face at work.

BT’s survey shows that executives feel they are wasting up to 25 percent of their time every day due to poor communication, collaboration and information flows, as well as basic administration tasks. They also feel frustrated by their IT departments, with 48 percent saying they don’t keep up to date with new technology. As a result, executives are starting to ‘go behind the back of IT’ to use open platforms such as Facebook or Twitter to collaborate, potentially putting corporate security policies at risk.

The findings of the survey show a growing appetite for unified communications globally, with conference calls - audio and video - becoming almost as ubiquitous as formal meetings. For example, 58 percent of directors and general managers make on average more than one video call per week.

The BT survey clearly shows that executives are demanding more unified communications, with 84 per cent stating that, together, instant messaging, e-mail, phone, video and telepresence help them be more successful. They want solutions such as desktop sharing, unified messaging, video, voice-to-text services and secure cloud storage.

The BT One portfolio has been designed to address these demands with a single unified communications framework for devices, legacy systems and one global network for all global users. New pricing models for cloud-based services and global support by BT Advise professional services specialists are also made available to customers, to help them progress to genuine unified communications environments, whatever legacy systems they might be currently using.