Adoption of unified communications technology has grown steadily over the past three years, but the number of organizations investing in their UC solutions this year appears to have taken a tumble in what is likely a temporary setback in the soft economy.
Our study, UC Communications Adoption Trend and Economic Experience, found that the percentage of organizations with UC solution in place grew from 25% in 2009 to 34% in 2011 (Figure 1).
The data also shows that fewer organizations in the U.S. and Canadia are making investment in UC. While 35% of organizations were either implementing or expanding UC solutions in 2009, the investment rate dropped to 22% to 2011, marking a substantial falloff.
This appears to be a break from what has been a steady progression toward the deployment of unified communications systems. Overall, unified communications continues to mature as more applications emerge and organizations build out their UC solution suites. Importantly, most organizations that have adopted UC solutions report meeting their budget commitments, and 84% report a positive return on their investments.
In the full report, Constellation Research Group analyst Elizabeth Herrell, an expert in business communication technology, assesses trends in unified communications. Herrell presents current data on enterprise adoption of this multifaceted technology and the economic experience of enterprise adopters, including experience with return on investment and total cost of ownership. In her analysis of the latest Computer Economics survey data, Herrell presents her predications on near-term technology trends and gives IT executives advice on planning and implementing solutions in this rapidly advancing technology area.
This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report on this subject, Unified Communications Adoption Trend and Economic Experience. The full report is available at no charge for Computer Economics clients, or it may be purchased by non-clients directly from our website (click for pricing).