Cory Rehfeldt, Collaboration Practice Director, looks at the benefits and pitfalls associated with mid-market companies’ plans for unified communications – and advocates a carefully planned approach.
Unified Communications - Plan Carefully
According to KPMG, 60% of mid-market companies plan to increase capital spending in the near future, with the highest priority being information technology.
More specifically, a Forrester Research survey in 2013 also found that 29% of mid-market companies planned to implement a unified communications and collaboration solution within the next 12 months—reflecting a greater awareness of the need to have a UC solution in place in today’s business world.
All this raises a big question however. That is, with the explosion of mid-market growth and these companies’ increased focus on IT solutions, how will mid-market organisations manage their tight budgets and small IT teams?
The truth is that mid-market companies need to operate like large enterprises but can only afford mid-market budget solutions—a sticky situation. In turn, that inevitably leads to concerns around security as well as the resources required for the on-going management of unified communications and collaboration solutions. In addition, with more and more employees working remotely, BYOD comes into play, which also demands more systems and more support.
There is no doubt that mid-market organisations have much to gain from adopting unified communications – not least streamlined collaboration and the productivity and innovation benefits it can bring. However, there is also a risk associated with moving too fast or without first putting in the time to develop a managed adoption roadmap – to make sure the benefits are not swallowed up by unforeseen costs and complexities.
To help get started, we created the Communication and Collaboration Transformation Journey, a customisable platform that allows any company to assess their readiness for unified communications and take clear steps to get there faster.
More information on the Logicalis approach to unified communications