The Issue:

IT budgets can vary dramatically, depending in part, on the size of the
organization, the number of virtual workers, and the technologies an
organization supports. In several recent Nemertes Research benchmarks, we
have found larger enterprises are more likely to deploy leading-edge
communication technologies, and spend more per user on high-end mobile
devices. Not surprisingly, organizations of all sizes are realizing the benefit of
adopting a unified-communication platform. IT decision-makers need to
consider this growing trend, along with the increase in the number of
organizations using managed service providers, when calculating IT costs.
Presenting comprehensive figures for total communication costs can be
problematic, as some enterprises have communication budgets divided among
business units.

For instance, the cost of implementing a mobile-communication strategy
may not be included in the IT “in-house” communication budget. In Nemertes’
recent benchmark, Building a Successful Virtual Workplace, we asked who funds
cellular costs. Generally, IT covers infrastructure costs, (including planning,
installation and trouble-shooting), but cellular services are another matter: 37%
of benchmark participants say individual business unit budgets provide funding
for these. Thus, the ability of an organization to figure out total expenditure for
communication costs per employee may be difficult.

Read this Issue Paper: The Cost of Communications [1]