When it comes to keeping workers productive, businesses and their IT departments have to make sure employees have the right tools to conduct business and collaborate with co-workers. Unified communications (UC) plays a big role in that by allowing everyone to work closer together.
However, mobility presents a new problem when it comes to UC. Employees want the same type of experience they get on their desktops. Without it, they can lose precious hours, sometimes totaling as many as 2.5 hours a week, which costs some businesses up to $500,000 in lost productivity.
As a result, one in three enterprises are implementing or planning to implement a mobile UC strategy that brings the best of these desktop technologies to smartphones and laptops, according to "Mobile Communications: The Emergence of 4D Convergence," a Dec. 6 report from Sonus Networks and Webtorials.
"I think we're seeing businesses embrace this with increased velocity," Terry Robinson, the principal marketing manager for communication applications at Sonus, told us.
We're seeing a lot traction with this, especially with smartphones that now have the capacity to do video. A lot of people use these devices outside the office, and there is more and more of a comfort level. People tend to use smartphones and tablets in their social environments, and that usually spurs the end users to push these requirements into the workforce. A lot of the workforce is mobile now, and businesses now see a strong value in this.
In a blog post last month, Rodney Brown showed that the bring your own device (BYOD) trend is one of the main reasons workers want UC capabilities on their smartphones. We also looked this week at how some companies are looking to provide a richer UC experience for workers looking to collaborate.
If the IT department or the CIO is looking for a reason to invest in this type of mobile UC and is trying to justify the return on investment, the report offers some interesting tidbits on how the market is changing.
By providing mobile UC to workers, businesses can restore up to $500,000 in lost productivity per 100 employees.
The lack of offsite UC infrastructure could mean that the average worker loses up to 2.5 hours of productivity each week.
About two-thirds of knowledge workers are mobile about 25 percent of the time.
About 18 percent of projects are delayed when workers cannot collaborate, and 16 percent of projects are delayed when someone making a key decision cannot be found.
Robinson said many employees are willing to download UC apps to their smartphones and tablets, but IT is starting to catch up to provide a better range of more business-ready applications that meet company standards.
This all seems to indicate that UC is about to change in a big way. What should IT do when it comes to this change in UC policy? What are the best-practices that all companies can invoke to keep employees productive but data safe?
@Scott - you are right, until everyone could clearly see the the saving... and to see the true savings you need time... in some cases - I little bit like a "catch 22"... do you agree?
@shehan: I see what you are saying in terms of making sure we can all communicate better. That's what everyone wants, right? No one is against communicating better, but the issue that seems to hold a lot of this up is ROI. Can IT show where there is more money to be made by allowing employees to communicate better? That's the tricky part.
could not agree more, but it also could be related to corporate culture inside the Co... as a lot of the time I did hear it as lip service, but never implimented inside the department... due to the dep.man. agenda's
@TStevens: We have seen an influx of reports on the mobile UC side of the UC equation. How much is market hype or a real honest sea change by employees is a good question. Bigger UC deployments are slowing down and it does seem logical that as we go more mobile, we need these tools everywhere. Now, the ROI is a different story and it's hard to measure. However, the lost productivity is at least a place to start. Anyone else think so?
Using resources to their fullest improves employee retention
Successful teams naturally develop employee retention, "Team work builds communication and an idea culture that helps retain valuable employees." As a team works together over time, the individuals in the team become more adept in that environment and the likelihood that they value their team increases with each success.
Collaboration helps you keep up with the fast, global pace.
With so much global competition and advanced technology, things happen at a faster pace and you have to keep up in order to be successful. Building a team of individuals with diverse strengths allows them to accomplish a variety of complex tasks. A competent team can accomplish much more than any one person alone — helping them keep up to a fast marketplace.
For the most part, I would not recommend that comapnaies jump into mobility UC. Many are just now getting a firm grasp on the desktop/VoIP UC and still aren't using it to its full potential. In addition, I feel that the the Law of Diminishing Returns is in play when it come to productivity and collaboration.
There are so many tools, methods, technologies out there to assist workers in increasing productivity and collaboration, that there has to be a point where it becomes counter-productive.
I do have to hand to the marketers (and their studies/reports) however, they are going heavy on this.
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