FRAMINGHAM, MA--(Marketwired - Jul 9, 2015) - IDG Enterprise -- the leading enterprise technology media company composed of CIO, Computerworld, CSO, DEMO, InfoWorld, ITworld and Network World -- announces the release of the 2015 Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) study which reveals the current business communication environment, with 55% of organizations currently using/running UC&C solutions and 61% planning to implement/upgrade within three years (Click to Tweet). Additional study highlights include direction of spending, areas of investment and business drivers.
Strong Adoption, Increased Spending
As new methods of communication evolve and more organizations realize their benefits, UC&C tools are showing significant growth in business. Within the next 12 months, 33% of organizations expect their UC&C budget to increase, and on average organizations' budgets will increase by 9%. Enterprises show a greater focus on communication solutions as 39% expect their budgets to increase compared to 28% of SMBs. The largest areas of investment are web, audio and videoconferencing services (47%), IP telephony (IPT) calling and management: IP phones (44%), and email, fax and voicemail including unified messaging (42%). (View Infographic)
With increased budgets and initiatives, CIOs/VP of IT are the most involved in UC&C purchase decisions (67% enterprise and 62% SMBs). Additional individuals such as IT/networking management and senior non-IT management provide input; however their involvement varies by company size. Organizations anticipate high returns on their investments with top benefits being improved employee collaboration, increased productivity and increased flexibility for employees/a more mobile workforce.
"As data transformation continues, unified communications and collaboration tools are making an innovative leap and organizations are recognizing the value that sits within these solutions," said Brian Glynn, chief revenue officer of IDG Enterprise. "Tech vendors have more opportunity to provide tools that can drive business forward, now and in years to come, with emerging tech such as videoconferencing and cloud, along with enhancing the key role mobile workforce communication plays in organizations' success."
Enterprise Leads Innovative UC&C Movement
Various traditional UC&C tools remain key communication players; however enterprises are showing a greater push towards investing in emerging technologies, such as videoconferencing and telepresence systems (44%) and mobile UC&C hardware, software and applications (42%). When it comes to videoconferencing, 54% of enterprise organizations find its use to be critical/very important while only 34% of SMBs agree. Similarly, 65% of enterprise IT decision-makers (ITDMs) report that telepresence technologies hold a significant/moderate investment among their organization versus 51% of SMBs. With communication playing a key role for a mobile workforce, it makes sense that organizations also utilize free downloadable videoconferencing solutions such as Skype (45%), Microsoft Lync (40%) and Google Chat (22%).
When ITDMs reflect on their organizations UC&C cloud models, a significant shift is expected within the next two years. Currently, 49% of organizations use a 100% premises-based model which will decrease to 18% in two years. The majority of organizations will transition to a hybrid model with majority on-premises with some cloud (26%) and 20% plan to use a 100% hosted/cloud solution.
Vendors Ability to Support Implementation Critical
UC&C adoption and innovation brings challenges that both ITDMs and vendors must take into consideration. Cost/funding (41%) remains the top challenge when implementing solutions (however, down from 54% in 2012), while security/privacy concerns jump from 31% in 2012 to 36% this year. Following in implementation challenges are integration with existing infrastructure (33%) and user quality/experience (30%).
When evaluating UC&C vendors, ITDMs' critical factors align with their implementation challenges -- security/ability to meet security requirements (58%), ease of use (46%) and low total cost of ownership (45%). Although companies of all sizes have a strong focus on security (63% enterprise and 54% SMB), it is not surprising that larger organizations focus more heavily on integration into existing infrastructure (44%), and that smaller organizations look for vendors with low total cost of ownership (51%) and ease of use (50%).
To discuss opportunities for receiving additional data, please contact Sue Yanovitch at syanovitch@idgenterprise.com.
About the IDG Enterprise 2015 Unified Communications & Collaboration Research
IDG Enterprise's 2015 Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) Survey was conducted online among the audiences of six IDG Enterprise brands -- CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, ITworld and Network World -- via pop-up and email invitations with the objective of understanding organizational adoption, use-cases, and solution needs with respect to UC&C. Results in this report are based on 653 respondents who must have reported UC&C solutions were planned or currently in place at their organization. Furthermore, respondents must have reported personal involvement in the purchase process for UC&C solutions at their organization.
About IDG Enterprise
IDG Enterprise, an International Data Group (IDG) company, brings together the leading editorial brands (CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, ITworld and Network World) to serve the information needs of our technology and security-focused audiences. As the premier high-tech B2B media, data and services company, we leverage the strengths of our premium owned and operated brands, while simultaneously harnessing their collective reach and audience affinity. We provide market leadership and converged marketing solutions for our customers to engage IT and security decision-makers across our portfolio of award-winning websites, events, magazines, products and services. IDG's DEMO conferences provide a platform for today's most innovative and eye-opening technologies to publically launch their solutions.
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