Key Points of Unified Communication or cost saving for SMEs

ShivanuShukla, industry manager of Frost & Sullivan, believes that when talking about communication system equipment, the major factors to consider for small and medium-sized enterprises are price, structure complexity, and simplicity of management and use.

Shukla said in an email interview: "Because small and medium enterprises do not have enough IT teams, managing and maintaining complex communication systems becomes a problem ."

NicolasDomeyko, Business Development Manager of Tandberg Asia Pacific, said, "although small and medium-sized enterprises seem to be the biggest obstacle to choosing a unified communication system, it is not easy for large enterprises to deploy such a system ." For small and medium-sized enterprises with tight budgets, there are many cheap Unified Communication technologies available on the market.

According to the latest survey, cost control and improved employee collaboration and productivity are the most important reasons for small and medium-sized enterprises to adopt a unified communication system, said cladocastelli, senior analyst at Ovum.

Advantages of a Unified Communication System

Shukla believes that the collaboration and mobile capabilities brought about by the adoption of unified communication systems, such as the instant messaging and online conference functions adopted by more and more small and medium-sized enterprises, helping SMEs reduce costs while improving productivity and flexibility.

Domeyko said that the Unified Communication System can help employees work across platforms and improve communication between different geographic locations. He also said that for today's mobile office staff, it is vital that they have the ability to communicate in real time.

The Unified Communication system not only allows team members to communicate through the video conferencing system, but also allows employees to access business-related applications anytime and anywhere.

When the unified communication system is integrated into the business process, the ROI will be very obvious. Domeyko said: "Every time you finish a video conference, you can recalculate the ROI of the Unified Communication System ." After the introduction of video technology, the Unified Communication System will be of great help to small and medium-sized enterprises.

"In response to enterprises' initiatives to reduce business travel, more and more enterprises are showing a sense of social responsibility to reduce carbon emissions," Domeyko said. "Therefore, video conferences can achieve a win-win situation, IT not only reduces the business travel cost, but also shows the attitude of enterprises to support green IT."

Steps for deploying a Unified Communication System

1. Evaluation: evaluate the current business processing and communication requirements of an enterprise and determine whether a unified communication system is required.

2. predict the future: predict the communication needs of enterprises in the next two years, such as conference tools and contact centers.

3. Management: Determine whether the new communication architecture can be managed by the enterprise or maintained by partners or service providers.

4. Comparison: Compare different products and services to determine which one meets the current and future communication requirements of the enterprise.

5. Decide: select the service and tool suppliers, and then implement specific projects within the enterprise to meet the current and future needs of the enterprise, and give enough customer support.

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