Unified communications (UC) transforms how businesses communicate by making it simpler to contact others over any device in any location resulting in improved business processes and customer experiences. Organizations run on information and UC facilitates the flow of information to speed the decision-making process, respond more quickly to customers, and reduce latency in employee communications. UC technology connects commmunication applications like voice, video, and audio conferencing with collaboration applications like calendars, email, Web conferencing, instant messaging, and presence on an open standard platform to position companies to become more responsive and agile.

Forrester Research conducted surveys of more than 420 key business decision-makers in retail banking, manufacturing, and education in six countries to identify areas in which their organizations experienced communications difficulties, and to quantify the extent to which these issues could be improved with UC. Survey respondents were given a description of how UC would function in certain situations and asked if these new capabilities would affect their ability to communicate more effectively. The situations described typical scenarios that were specific to each vertical industry.

The survey did not identify any specific product or vendor. The survey evaluated key communication situations common to most organizations: support for mobile employees, delays in business processes, lack of knowledge sharing among a distributed workforce, and slow response times to critical business issues. Although each industry has its own priorities, improving business agility, reducing costs, and increasing employee productivity are common across all industries.

The following sections describe the key findings of these surveys for each of the three vertical

markets. Although there were some differences among countries, the survey confirmed the

following:

• Organizations around the globe have multiple areas within their lines of business in which workers experience communication challenges.
  
• A distributed workforce adds more complexity making it necessary for organizations to support effective communications across remote sites and for emergency response.
  
• Unified communications provides real value in every industry surveyed in terms of cost reductions, increased productivity, rapid problem resolution, improved customer response, and business agility.

Click here to download the report entitled, "Unified Communications Delivers Global Benefits," by Forester Consulting.

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