cost savings

UC Cuts Costs by 78% for Ohio Township

What happens when you’re a large (the largest in the state) township in Ohio with an archaic, outdated communications infrastructure? In this economy, and in the state of Ohio in particular, money is not exactly flowing freely for IT projects.

As I have mentioned repeatedly here though- an investment in unified communications is not an expense. You have to consider the overall impact, the improved communications, and the more efficient processes. You have to look at the savings that will be generated once the unified communications platform is implemented.

In the case of Colerain Township, OH, the investment in unified communications resulted in a 78% drop in annual services costs for communication while vastly improving the communications infrastructure and enabling the local government to provide better service for its citizens.

Business Continuity and Cost-Cutting with UC

Over the past few years I have been a guest on the IMI-TechTalk radio show, hosted by Tom D’Auria, a number of times. TechTalk is broadcast on KFNX AM 1100 out of Phoenix, AZ, but you can also listen to a live stream of the show via the Web as well. Tune in at 6pm Eastern / 5pm Central on Sundays to listen to the show live. If you miss the live show, you can check back on the IMI-TechTalk blog and find a link to the recorded MP3’s to download after the fact.

That brings me to my most recent guest appearance. It was impromptu on about 30 seconds notice. There was some time zone confusion with the scheduled guest of the IMI-TechTalk radio show. I received a phone call in the middle of the show while Tom was live on the air asking me to step in and do the live show impromptu. So, I jumped on the air and host Tom D’Auria and I proceeded to discuss unified communications. Specifically, we talked about how unified communications pays for itself and can help companies save money, as well as how it fits into business continuity plans and preventing or responding to a pandemic outbreak or any other disaster. 

You can play the downloaded MP3 of the show from the link on this blog post: IMI-TechTalk: Business Continuity and Cost-Cutting With Unified Communications.

Invest in UC Now: Top Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Wait Any Longer

In the midst of an economic downturn, right now probably doesn’t seem like a good time to be investing in a full-fledge UC implementation. But, what many people don’t know is that UC can immediately save your company money and give you the competitive edge you’ve been looking for - without breaking the bank.

Attend this Virtual Seminar, “Unified Communications: A Good Investment in a Down Economy” to find out what you can do to ensure that you’ve got the building blocks in place to reap the benefits of UC even if you’re not ready to be there now. The knowledge you will gain will be worth the time you invest and will not only allow you to weather the current economy, but help you come out on top when things turn around.

When:    LIVE! June 16, 2009. 9:30 AM - 2:30 PM EDT (1330 - 1830 GMT)

Pre-register today: http://go.techtarget.com/r/7534638/5421719

Saving Money By Investing in Unified Communications

When is an expense not an expense? When the expense saves more money than it costs. There is a reason that so many organizations are continuing to invest in unified communications deployments. They are laying off workers, freezing pay, and cutting budgets in other areas in response to the recession / depression and general state of the global economy.

But, investing in unified communications is seen as a cost-cutting measure as well as an investment in technologies that will help the organization to communicate more effectively and operate more efficiently so it can continue to get more done with fewer resources. In a time when people and budgets are being cut, unified communications almost becomes an imperative so that the people who are remain can still get the job done and deliver quality products and services for customers.

That is just my $.02 (which may only be worth half a cent in this economy- so take it for what its worth). You can get another point of view on the subject from this CIO.com article: Unified Communications, Collaboration Can Help Save Cash.

12% Annual Growth Predicted for Unified Communications

As this TMCNet.com article on unified communications points out, unified communications is difficult to define as a market in and of itself. The components that make up unified communications cut across a variety of existing markets including “conferencing (Web, audio, video and multi-media); voice, fax and email messaging; instant messaging; mobility; presence; phone systems; communications-enabled business processes and hosted collaboration or voice services.”

But, when you combine the component markets that make up unified communications and look at the unified communications market as a whole, it appears that what was a $21.5 billion market in 2008 is on track for 12% annual growth and is predicted to grow to a $37.3 billion market by 2013. With a global economy in recession its nice to see an IT segment with strong growth. It is probably no coincidence that it is a market segment that has the most potential to result in more efficient and streamlined business processes and enable organizations to cut costs in a variety of ways.

Unified Communications Can Save Planet Earth

That is my sort of ‘Twitter-friendly’ way of restating the message from the recent report by the WWF (No. Not the Hulk Hogan WWF- the World Wrestling Federation. The report is from the other WWF - the World Wildlife Fund). In a report titled Virtual Meetings and Climate Innovation in the 21st Century, the WWF describes how the increasing adoption of video conferencing and other virtual meeting technologies reduces the carbon output and helps save the environment.

Many organizations are cutting back on travel and leveraging unified communications to enhance their ability to meet and collaborate in real-time no matter where in the world the participants might be. Granted, most are doing so for purely fiscal reasons rather than environmental altruism. Travel is expensive and the economy is hurting many companies. But, the result is the same.

The GreenBiz.com blog though points out that there is still significant room for improvement. They cite “concerns about effectiveness of the technology; limited access to bandwidth and equipment; weak vendor incentives to push large-scale use; misalignment of user incentives and; a lack of strategic impetus in many organizations; and poor information about the benefits” as factors behind the slow adoption of these technologies.

The combined message then is this: we are headed in the right direction, but we have a ways to go and we could be going faster. Unified communications helps organizations operate more efficiently and save money in a variety of ways. As a bonus to the benefits inherent in unified communications, it also reduces carbon emissions and helps save the planet. Seems like a win-win.

Death of the Desk Phone

At Voicecon 2009 in Orlando last week, Microsoft’s Gurdeep Singh Pall, vice president of the unified communications group, pointed out that the desk phone is a ‘dead man walking’. Organizations spend an average of $300 per phone, plus the additional cost of running the necessary cabling and jacks to each desk and the power consumption of having the phones plugged in. For one or two users it may not be a big deal, but for organizations with 500, or 5,000, or 50,000 users the cost adds up quickly.

Microsoft Unified Communications, and using Microsoft Office Communicator to replace the desk phone, enables organizations to eliminate those costs. The computer is already there. It is already plugged in. It already has the necessary cables and connectivity installed. It can perform the same functions as the desk phone and then some, so it is a redundant waste of money to have a phone sitting there next to the computer.

Pall also described some success stories around Microsoft Office Communications Server including Swiss telecommunications company Swisscom. According to this Network World article, Swisscom’s head of collaboration services, Andreas Arrigoni said “The software helped shorten sales cycles by 20% and freed up 20 minutes per person per day with efficiencies that left time to do more work.” He then added “The system also supports federated presence so workers at Swisscom can see whether individuals at partner companies are available and by what means.”

RIP desk phone. It has been nice knowing you.

Want Stimulus? Get Unified Communications

Pssst. Over here. Keep this just between us, ok? The global economy is trashed. Shhhh.

If you haven’t heard, the United States and the rest of the world are in a recession bordering on depression. In the United States unemployment is the highest its been in decades. The stock market is the lowest it has been in years. The federal and state governments are scrambling to find solutions and turn things around.

President Barack Obama and the United States federal government have put forth a stimulus / recovery package to help get things back on track. Businesses that are looking for ways to cut costs and increase the bottom line can create their own stimulus package by investing in unified communications.

Making the move from traditional voice to VoIP has a number of cost advantages that could represent significant savings for many companies. For some companies though, one of the biggest expenses is travel. Flying people for onsite meetings involves airfare, rental cars, hotel lodging, per diem dining at restaurants, and more.

Companies can minimize, or even eliminate, those expenses by embracing unified communications and leveraging the conferencing functionality. Unified communications makes it simple to schedule and host a voice conference call. If documents or images need to be shared, a Live Meeting or similar collaboration session can be used to enable participants to see each other’s computer desktops. For situations where face to face meetings are desired video conferencing can accomplish virtually the same goal at a fraction of the cost.

Do your part to turn the economy around by investing in unified communications and creating your own stimulus package.

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Cost Savings Drives UC Adoption by SMB’s

ROI is generally at or near the top of the checklist when trying to determine if a given project should be approved. Of course, the project may make workers more efficient, it may improve logistics or increase the speed at which products or services can be delivered to customers, or it may just be really cool. But, where the rubber meets the road is translating that efficiency, speed, or productivity into dollars and comparing it against the initial investment to determine if it is really worth it.

Recent studies by Siemens and bMighty help to illustrate just how significant that ROI is and how quickly the initial investment can be recovered when implementing unified communications. Interestingly, the Siemens study also found that SMB’s have the same top 6 pain points (listed in the same order of priority) as large enterprises when it comes to unified communications.

Looking at the big picture and doing the math “the study says 70% of SMBs have dealt with the top five pain points, rendering an average of 17.5 hours per week per knowledge worker into “unproductive” work time. This costs an average of $26,041 per knowledge worker per year, or $5,246 per employee per year.”

Comparing that with an average unified communications implementation cost of $225 per worker, a company with only 50 employees could see cost savings of over $250,000 in the first year. The cost of deploying unified communications will vary largely depending on the vendor that is chosen and the current state of the organization’s communications and data infrastructures, but for a company of only 50 people it is almost certain to be significantly less than $250,000.

Say the company has 250 employees? Suddenly that $250,000 in savings becomes over $1.3 million. If an investment in unified communications can save a 250-person company $1.3 million per year I think the next questions should be ‘when can we start, and how soon can we get UC up and running?’

Cutting Costs With UC

Companies love meetings. There are so many meetings it is often amazing that anything ever gets done. There are meetings to plan the initial meeting, progress meetings, milestone meetings, budget meetings, etc., etc. It is insane. What is more insane though is how frequently companies fly everyone to one location to meet in person. On top of the impact to productivity of constantly meeting to begin with, the company incurs expenses for airfare or vehicle mileage, hotel lodging, meals, and other miscellaneous travel expenses. Depending on how many people are attending, it is possible that a single meeting- and its associated travel and lodging expenses- could pay for the lion’s share of a unified communications implementation. Part of the beauty and value of UC is that it helps parties scattered around the globe communicate more effectively. This includes real-time meetings and can represent a significant time and money savings for the company, especially given the current price of fuel.