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Dimension Data Research: Unified Communications Adoption Outpaces
Expectations
(Wireless News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
New research released by Dimension Data reveals that unified
communications technologies are high on organisations' investment
agendas following the rapid adoption of new technologies by IT users.
Organizations perceive unified communications technologies to be
reasonably mature, and will be investing in these technologies in the
next six months to two years.
The research, commissioned by Dimension Data and conducted by
Datamonitor, surveyed 390 IT managers and 524 end-users across 13
countries in the United States, Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East
and Africa.
The findings show that organisations view click-to-dial on desktops (52
percent), and presence (42 percent) as maturing technologies which will
be routinely used in the corporate environment within two years.
Most organisations have already invested in infrastructure technologies
with 37 percent of companies currently using IP telephony, followed by
36 percent using a video conferencing infrastructure. Although mobile
VoIP is not widely used, an investment is on corporate agendas, in the
next two years.
The United States leads the way in IP telephony adoption (60 percent)
with Middle East and Africa having the lowest penetration at 13 percent.
Rob Lopez, Managing Director, Solutions at Dimension Data says, "The
research indicates that unified communications and the associated
technologies are more widely adopted than anticipated. Whilst
organisations have been reluctant or unable to adopt these technologies
as a corporate standard, Dimension Data clients around the world are
telling us that consumers are bringing these technologies into the
workplace.
"Organisations intuitively understand the value of unified
communications and the associated benefits. These include improved
employee productivity and customer service, as well as infrastructure
cost savings. In addition, the move to work-from-home - or
flexi-working - initiatives around the world has also impacted the
increase in adoption."
The research also confirms that the management of unified communication
technologies is being outsourced more frequently than other
technologies, with 38 percent of the sample currently having
technologies managed onsite or fully managed, followed by voice/data
network management (34 percent).
Lopez concludes, "While companies consider the functionality that
unified communications offers as core to conducting business in a
profitable and cost effective way, these technologies can become
complex to deploy and manage. Deploying unified communications as a
corporate tool requires a stable operating environment, standardised
systems and common identity management. Some organisations will
therefore opt to outsource the management of unified communications to
companies like Dimension Data."
Other key findings in the Dimension Data survey include: unified
communications is a vibrant and developing market; security is a
concern rather than an issue; unified communications technologies are
more likely to be outsourced or externally managed than other
technologies; and unified communications mindshares are dominated by
alpha brands within each market.
Dimension Data, a specialist IT services and solution provider, helps
clients plan, build, support and manage their IT infrastructures.
((Comments on this story may be sent to newsdesk@closeupmedia.com))
((Distributed on behalf of 10Meters via M2 Communications Ltd -
http://www.m2.com))
((10Meters - http://www.10meters.com))
Copyright 2007 Wireless News
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