Are you looking to reap the benefits of Unified Communications (UC)? If so you aren't alone: roughly three quarters of Enterprise CIOs either have or plan to roll out UC in the next 12 months.
It's one of the most rewarding investments an organization can make. But making the business case for it can be difficult. Here are six points that you can use to help create buy-in.
1. Establish goals
There is no doubt that Unified Communications can bring real improvement to the enterprise. But lack of clear end-goals can lead to unnecessary complication in the implementation phase. What, specifically, does your organization need to achieve with UC? Having a clear picture of your goals will facilitate a smooth transition to UC and better position your organization to reap the benefits.
2. Generate hard cost savings
Right now, most businesses are more focused than ever on cost savings, and our experience in working with clients on UC deployments and industry sources indicate that, on average, UC can help in this area by:
- Reducing branch office telephony management costs by half
- Saving by $8,000 to $16,000 per year with each home-based or branch office worker, as compared with a worker at headquarters
- Cut trunking and toll charges by 25 to 75 per cent
- Reduce long distance and calling card fees by $50 per month per mobile user
- Save an average of $668 per user per year from travel avoidance
Use numbers like these to make the case for UC!
3. Leverage hidden benefits
The greatest benefits of UC may very well be those most difficult to quantify, such as increased customer satisfaction and greater employee retention. You can expect good things to happen when calls and emails are returned promptly and satellite workers feel that they are truly part of the team! Don't sell these savings short – the gains in productivity and reduced churn will have a substantial impact on the bottom line.
4. Demonstrate the need
Establish the need for UC by showing where it can address shortcomings within existing systems, human and otherwise. Remember that a UC rollout involves not only new systems such as soft phones and presence, but also optimizes what you already have.
Determining the answers to the following types of questions can help you to uncover the need for UC:
- Are you using VoIP telephony?
- Do mobile and landlines forward to a single voice mail?
- What systems do you currently have?
5. Quantify latency and duplicated effort
If you don't know where you stand, it's difficult to measure improvement. UC will have a direct effect on many metrics – it's just a matter of identifying them initially to provide context for the benefits of UC. Here are some questions to get you started:
- How much time do employees spend in meetings in which their attendance is not always strictly necessary?
- What is your current response time for email or voice mail requests and inquiries?
- Are internal and client response times acceptable?
- How difficult is it to locate internal resources whether it be a person, process or piece of information?
- How many steps are involved in each of the most common business processes?
- Is it possible to reduce those numbers?
For a more detailed look at your UC needs, download our assessment tool.
6. Think about the future
Because instant communication and collaboration technologies lead to changes in processes and patterns of interaction, it's important to be able to outline the likely consequences of convergence technology, both good and bad. In making the case for UC you should be able to demonstrate what happens when all of the functionality you are looking for is put in place.
Take the time to determine how current workflow models might change post-UC. Once the likely flow of processes, data and communications is well understood, it will make the case for UC that much more credible and appealing.
To learn more
Bell is a leader in the field of UC. For help in creating a roadmap for UC or for more information on how enterprise telephony solutions from Bell can help your business, contact your Bell representative or click here to have a Bell representative contact you.