October 1, 2008
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Adoption of Real-Time Communications and Collaboration Continues to Rise
84% of Companies Planning or Deploying Unified Communications
NEW YORK, NY – October 1, 2008 – Unified communications deployments continue to grow in the enterprise, according to Nemertes’ . More than 47% of IT executives indicate they are deploying or planning to deploy UC, which is up 17% from 2007.
Disperse workgroup locations, rising travel costs, and new technology options such as telepresence are a common factor driving the increase of UC deployments. “Nearly 90% of enterprises identified their organizations as ‘virtual’ where employees work remotely from supervisors or workgroups,” says Irwin Lazar, principal analyst and program director for unified communications and collaboration with Nemertes. “This leads enterprises to invest in technologies that enable better collaboration. “
Large growth in adoption of desktop, room-based, and telepresence video conferencing is allowing several global companies to eliminate 2% to 5% of international executive travel. The study found 65% of executives deploying or evaluating telepresence video-conferencing systems, and 51% deploying desktop video. The increased use of video conferencing is a direct result of travel restrictions or reductions in travel budgets.
The benchmark -- in which 443 IT executives also rate their IP telephony and unified-communications vendors -- advises enterprises to build a business case, looking for opportunities to reduce human latency and travel, and improve meeting efficiency by leveraging UC applications appropriate for business. “IT managers need to make sure they have a UC plan, and that they are looking at video to improve virtual worker collaboration and travel costs,” says Lazar.
About the Benchmark
This study is part of an eight-volume benchmark, “Unified Communications and Collaboration, which examines several key areas including organizational strategies, unified-communications applications, Web 2.0 and collaboration technology, mobility, voice of IP and video over IP. In addition to the detailed research based on discussions with 443 IT executives, Nemertes will also look at the vertical-market implications.
About Nemertes Research
Nemertes Research is a research-advisory firm that specializes in analyzing and quantifying the business value of emerging technologies. You can learn more about Nemertes Research at our Website www.nemertes.com.