productivity

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.

Remember ROI?

Ah, the ‘Good Ole Days’. Remember when business decisions and investments could be made based on ROI (return on investment). If a business invests $1 million in new manufacturing equipment that helps them produce higher quality widgets faster, thereby increasing output and bringing in $200,000 a month more in revenue, then the investment pays for itself in 5 months and after that its all gravy. Simple enough.

The problem is that many of the business decisions and investments on the table these days do not fit into ROI calculations. Investing in network security does not generate revenue. It just (hopefully) protects you from losing money. Investing in process automation does not generate revenue. It (hopefully) makes processes more efficient resulting in cost savings per process execution which reflects back to the bottom line. Unified communications is sort of in the same boat.

In and of itself, UC won’t generally make money. What it will (hopefully) do if implemented properly is allow employees to work more efficiently and be more productive. It will allow employees to collaborate more effectively and help to generate team synergy where it wasn’t possible before. It will enable the business to respond to market pressures and customer needs more agilely. UC is a tremendous investment, but companies need to understand the big picture and both implement and use the tools effectively. Oh, and don’t try to justify the investment with a straight ROI measurement. Your CFO probably won’t cut a check based on that argument.

Quantifying the Value of UC

The features and benefits of unified communications sound great, but for most businesses you have to be able to demonstrate and quantify the actual return on investment. The fact that it is “very cool” does little for the bottom line. But, what if you could tell the CFO, or the Board of Directors that it will reduce the cost of communications by 10%, or that employee productivity will go up by 10%, or that customer satisfaction will increase by 21%? That might make a more solid case for UC. A recent study by Dimension Data shows just that. For more about the Dimension Data study, check out this article from Customer Strategy magazine.

Customers Share Benefits of UC

At VoiceCon 2008 in Orlando, some of the early adopters of the new unified communications initiatives shared some of the benefits they have experienced as a result of migrating to UC. Some claim reduced communications costs, increased productivity, or faster customer service response times. According to this Network World article, one of the main issues that customers have with UC, particularly these early adopters, is the lack of standards or compatibility between different vendors. With proprietary solutions, early adopters sometimes paint themselves into a corner and may experience reduced value from their UC investment if the platform they choose does not evolve and expand the way the company needs.