UC Unifies Digital Tech and Employees

The road to digital transformation is littered with plenty of obstacles. But amid all the discussions about various strategies, technologies and approaches lies this fact: An organization’s success is heavily dependent on unified communications (UC). Essentially, it’s the glue that holds digital systems and people together.

At the center are communication and collaboration tools that integrate multiple capabilities, including messaging, file sharing, streaming video, videoconferencing and even live polling. Equally important: In many cases, these tools must work within a single virtual space, and they must support a variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets, desktop and laptop PCs, and conventional telephone audio.

Connecting a complex framework and building a workable ecosystem is essential. What’s more, performance is a critical issue. Bad video or audio, or a failure to share and edit files collaboratively in real time, can torpedo productivity and performance.

A study from UC services firm IR offers some interesting insights into the state of unified communications. The firm surveyed 511 senior decision-makers in the United States and found that many organizations lack the necessary framework to create a digital enterprise. According to the survey, more than one-third of IT decision-makers report that their existing infrastructures aren’t ready to support the high traffic levels that result from advanced productivity and collaboration tools.

In addition, 30 percent of the respondents reported that the inability to pilot projects and provide training on time and on budget were key contributors to shortcomings in UC. An equal percentage indicated that their organization’s infrastructure couldn’t support the necessary requirements. About one out of four IT decision-makers said that the lack of support from the executive team and the concern that the technology wouldn’t deliver as promised were other problem areas.

The takeaway? “In order to drive digital transformation through UC, it is important to remove the doubt caused by the previously unknown or unseen issues lurking in that environment,” noted Darc Rasmussen, managing director and chief executive officer at IR.

To be sure, as organizations encounter increasingly complicated cloud and hybrid UC environments–and the bar is set higher due to users’ greater demands and expectations—enterprises require a more comprehensive view and more holistic thinking, Rasmussen says.