A Frost & Sullivan Whitepaper

THE ROLE OF UC SERVICESIN BUILDINGLASTING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGESaving Money, Beating the Economic Downturn

and Supporting the Recovery

CONTENTS

Introduction

The Challenges of Recession

Why Unified Communications?

Productivity Gains, Business Process Acceleration

Cost Savings

Improved Balance between Work and Personal Life

Sustainability, Reduced Carbon Footprint

The Swiss Re Experience:Strategic Communication Tools Shape the Way Swiss Re Operates

The Metso Experience:Web Conferencing Usage Growing from Within

Conclusion

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INTRODUCTION

Most of the world is experiencing an economic slowdown which, in many places, has deteriorated into

recession. Business leaders are faced with enormous challenges. Enduring huge pressure to slash costs, they

must ensure that their businesses are lean, agile, and efficient. At the same time, they must continue to deliver

consistently high value to their customers, and they increasingly have to prove to their customers that the

purchase will benefit the customers’ business.

Unified communications can help address many of these challenges. Although Unified Communications (UC)

is the new buzzword in the business world, the tools that integrate to form UC have been in place for several

years.

Although businesses, government bodies and other organizations are discovering the concrete benefits they

can realize from integrating their desktop and infrastructure-based communication tools, the economic

slowdown is also creating a new set of restraints. Because we are uncertain about the depth and duration

of the current downturn, we are uncertain about new investments – even investments in products and

services that hold out a promise of reducing operating costs.

Frost & Sullivan regularly interacts with business leaders across the globe and has identified three

different patterns describing how organizations around the world are responding to the growing

sense of economic insecurity.

Although the ability to communicate effectively with the people inside and outside an organization has

become crucial to building competitive advantage, Frost & Sullivan’s April 2009 survey of global companies

with revenues in excess of $100 million suggests that only 20% of the World’s major companies are

currently Decisive Adopters.

New communication tools can enhance the collaboration of employees

and provide the “anytime, anywhere” availability that enable businesses to

deliver the best services in the shortest time.

This whitepaper will explore how the unique benefits of unified

communications can help you address your business challenges. It will

showcase two successful organizations that are already enjoying substantial

benefits from unified communications, and it will provide

recommendations to businesses looking to streamline their

communications.

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The Cautious, Cost-focused

At risk of becoming potentiallytrapped in a ‘Death Spiral’, thesecompanies are cutting costsacross the board, reducingproduct investment, and servicesto their customers. A likely resultof this behaviour is a loss ofmarket share, creating pressureon the company to cut its prices. Cutting prices creates evengreater pressure on profitability –inevitably leading to yet anotherround of cost cutting.

Businesses finding themselves inthis downward spiral becomeweaker and weaker, and may endup as acquisition targets or -worse still - cease tradingcompletely.

The Hesitant Majority

In the face of the great uncertaintycaused by the numerous globalcrisis, the majority of organizationssimply find it difficult to decidewhat to do. They respond by takinga number of different actions,creating multiple internal initiativesand launching many externalmarketing programmes.

In this bluster of activity they mayfind it hard to see in whichdirection they are actually moving,or they may mislead themselvesinto believing that their actionsare having a positive effect.

Ultimately, this indecision can beas fatal as adopting a cautiouscost focused strategy.

The Decisive Adopters

These are companies that have astrategic vision. They alreadyunderstand how the investment inkey technologies is critical todelivering against that vision.Decisive Adopters want to beatthe recession, not simply surviveit; coming through it stronger, bygrabbing more market share oreven driving competitors out ofthe market.

They are sophisticated in theirthinking about the implementationof advanced communicationsproducts and services. Theyunderstand the cost savings thatcan be achieved but are also keento exploit the productivity andefficiency benefits to change theway they operate, creating newforms of competitive advantage.

AT&T

Unified Communications

Unified Communications

brings together voice, email,

messaging and conferencing,

and integrates them within

business applications.

AT&T’s IP network is the

lynchpin to delivering a rich

set of unified

communications applications

at the scale needed by

enterprises operating in

global and dynamic

environments.

Source: Frost & Sullivan, 2009

THE CHALLENGES OF RECESSION

We generally define a recession as two consecutive quarters of negative real economic growth. According to the

Bureau of Economic Analysis under the US Department of Commerce, the United States has experienced four

recessions since 1980 alone. In the United Kingdom there were three recessions during the same period (source:

Office for National Statistics).

What this tells us is that there is nothing abnormal about recessions occurring. Successful businesses are those that

do not panic but address their challenges and otherwise keep calm and carry on, to borrow a British World War II

slogan.

APPLE: DEFYING THE RECESSION TO CREATE SUCCESS

Apple is a good example of a company that has invested heavily despite an economic downturn and has

turned its fortunes completely around, as a result. During the second half of the nineties, the company that

was then called Apple Computers was, in Frost & Sullivan’s opinion, not particularly successful. Although

its Macintosh product had been extremely innovative, Apple had failed to gain real momentum in the

computer space, by and large losing out to the PC in most corporate and mass market segments. Windows

had effectively emulated most of the innovative aspects of Apple’s operating system, confining it to a market

niche. As Apple approached the economic downturn of 2000-2001, its market share of the US desktop

market was a mere 2% or just below that.

Despite the precarious situation, Apple significantly increased its R&D spending, allowing it to launch the

iPod in the Autumn of 2001, in the middle of a quarter of negative real economic growth. In 2001, Apple also

embarked upon its Apple Retail Store programme, bringing it closer to the mass market consumer. The rest

is history!

Today, Apple is a phenomenally successful company and has even dropped the word “Computer” from its

company name, to emphasize its new orientation away from computing. What is more, the iPod laid the

foundation for a string of equally successful products such as the iPhone, of which AT&T is the sole distributor

in the United States. Apple Inc is proving to be very resilient in the current recession with profits of $1.21 billion

in its fiscal 2009 second quarter. Gross margin was 36.4%, up from 32.9% compared to the same quarter of the

year before.

Where does your company stand? Are you a decisive adopter?

Like most, you are probably fairly familiar with well-

established, tried-and-tested products and services, like

VoIP, audio conferencing and instant messaging, but how

familiar are you with the concept of Unified

Communications (UC) and the benefits it generates?

Frost & Sullivan’s April 2009 survey of global companies

reveals that only 31% of CEOs are aware of the concept

of UC. Yet, 51% of the CEOs, whose organizations have

already invested in some kind of UC, intend to increase

their usage. The survey also shows that 26% of the

companies increased their spending on UC during the

past twelve months.

What these numbers tell us is that practically all global

companies have some type of UC tool(s) in operation.

The majority of companies are already realising benefits

from using these multiple disparate UC tools, but those who have integrated the tools into a UC solution,

have experienced that UC can offer businesses far more than the collection of separate, stand-alone

communications tools. This is why they are encouraged to continue increasing their UC spending and usage.

Frost & Sullivan defines a UC application as an integrated set of voice, data and video communications which

can leverage PC and telephony-based presence information. UC applications are designed to simplify

communications for the end-user, by making it easy to “click to communicate”, integrating what would

otherwise be separate, discrete tasks.

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AT&T Connect®

AT&T Connect® combines

voice, web and video

conferencing in one

integrated product that

enables you to provide

conferencing and

collaboration to everyone in

your company, just like

email.

Awareness of Communication and Collaboration Toolsin Global >$100 million Companies

Source: Frost & Sullivan, 2009

WHY UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS?

The capability of quickly engaging in the most appropriate form of communication to deliver the desired

output can make a big difference to workplace efficiency. When UC is built purposefully into a business

process, the integrated nature of the solution allows employees to move from one task to the next more

seamlessly than with stand-alone communications tools.

UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS, BEFORE AND AFTER

A typical occurrence is an e-mail sent requiring the recipient to take action. Before UC, there would have

been many exchanges of e-mails, voicemails left, and time lost. With UC, the required action can be taken

easily, in a matter of minutes, at a time that suits both parties.

Another example is the exchange of documents. Before UC, telephone calls and e-mails would have been

exchanged to discover what document the other party required. Often, the wrong document or the wrong

version of the document would have been forwarded, different employees would have edited different

versions of the same document and version control would have been lost. With UC, we are able to open a

document on our desktop; share it with colleagues in real-time; confirm it is the correct version; discuss the

necessary changes; and make those changes together in real-time.

Working in global project teams has also become easier and more cost-efficient. Before UC, project team

members would need to regularly meet face-to-face . They would drive or fly, wasting time, generating costs

and causing carbon emissions. Some experts located in different parts of the world, were excluded from

participating in certain teams for practical reasons. With UC, you can pull subject matter experts into working

meetings in a matter of minutes, and there is no need for anyone to travel. This saves costs and carbon

emissions and, even more importantly, increases the general quality of the team work, because there are no

practical limitations to the experts we can call upon to support our teams.

Most people are familiar with the standard presence 'states' - such as Do Not Disturb and Away - from their

instant messaging or chat tools. Within UC, presence states can be richer, more detailed, and context sensitive.

Used carefully, the person setting his or her presence state and the person viewing is able to better decide when

and how to communicate. This use of presence as a central, pervasive feature of UC can further aid productivity.

The Type of Unified Communications to Suit Your Business Needs

UC comes with not one, but three implementation options, and it is important for organizations to consider

which option is right for them:

• An on-premise solution, running as a software, hardware, or combined software-hardware application

at one of your locations;

• A hosted service, using the hardware and software of the service provider, accessed via the Internet

or a secure private IP network; or

• A managed service, with many or possible all delivery, support and maintenance tasks handled by the

service provider.

Service providers and vendors can even offer a so-called “blended” solution to better suit an individual

customer’s needs. Financially, companies may prefer to own the UC solution outright, as a capital asset, or

at least have it fully installed on their own premises - perhaps to maximize the use of their own internal

networks or to leverage their existing IT Department.

The hosted and managed UC services generally do not require the customer organization to own or administer

hardware or software, and some companies may choose a complete opex-based solution, with the total cost

of all services, applications, hardware and endpoints amortized over a fixed length contract of 3 or more years.

In these credit crunch times, private and public organizations are looking very carefully at the benefits of the

hosted services options, with little or no up-front capital costs to worry about. Indeed, Frost & Sullivan’s April 2009

survey suggests that 51% of the large, global companies increased their provisions for managed services, whereas

49% increased their provisions for hosted services. Companies that increased provisions for both managed and

hosted services were counted in both groups.

Both the Cautious, Cost-focused and the Hesitant Majority would do well to look at the hosted service

options, which allow them to put ‘a toe in the water’ with a limited number of licensed seats and functionality

– perhaps targeting a single department with which to trial the use of the services.

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For the Decisive Adopters, now already completely sold on the benefits that UC can deliver, the on-premise or

managed services options may be the best next steps. While hosted services can offer great flexibility, with

reduced or even zero administration expenses, having access to one’s own, exclusive UC platform brings with it

the powerful capability of being able to closely integrate its communications tools with a company’s proprietary

business processes and systems, such as CRM and ERP. It is this close integration of communications and business

processes that some organizations see as the route to new ways of working and new innovative forms of

competitive advantage.

PRODUCTIVITY GAINS, BUSINESS PROCESS ACCELERATION

Simply expecting people to work harder, faster and longer is a recipe for failure in any organization. Even in a

recession, with the fear of job cuts making employees more amenable to putting in extra hours, a collective

adrenaline rush will only provide short-term gains, before tiredness, stress-related illnesses and demoralization

offset the best efforts of the workforce.

Fortunately, there are alternatives. We can achieve productivity gains in two ways: We can give our employees

tools that enable them to perform their existing tasks

in less time, or we can remodel our business

processes so that some existing tasks become simpler

and other tasks – those tasks that do not generate any

value for our customers – are eliminated altogether.

UC is able to deliver on both promises, or on a

combination of the two. UC can provide a gradually

evolving response to the challenges of any organization,

as the economic situation changes. The productivity

gains that unified communications can deliver is not an

all-or-nothing proposition, requiring you to rip-and-

replace existing systems or tried-and-tested processes

and procedures from day one.

As the case studies in this whitepaper clearly show, UC supports rich collaboration that can effectively span

the multiple languages, time zones and geographies that are the reality in today's global economies.

Productivity gains result from freeing up employee time that would otherwise be wasted in travelling to

unnecessary meetings; in almost endless exchanges of e-mails that do not resolve the central issues; in trading

voice messages with colleagues, trying to arrange a time when you can all be on the same conference call.

This is latency: a human coefficient of drag that slows down business information flows and decision making

and allows errors to creep into the system. Mistakes arise because information does not arrive in time, faulty

data trickles through the chain, and mischievous politicking sends it spinning off, uselessly, in a wrong direction.

UC mitigates the risk of error, because it condenses business process timelines, reducing the natural human-

induced latency in the system, and thereby improving the transmission of accurate, timely information, and

so speeding up decision-making.

In any economy, faster, better decision making is a critical competitive advantage, making the difference

between winning or losing a deal, or staying in business or crashing.

The many companies with which Frost & Sullivan has interacted with have all had different pain points to

address and different goals to achieve. They have chosen different UC implementation options and have made

different experiences as a result. But two conclusions they seem to all have in common: (1) UC needs to

develop from the inside and companies deploying UC solutions need to carefully plan their adoption strategy

of such solutions; and (2) It is difficult to go back to stand-alone tools, once UC has been fully implemented,

because the advantages to UC are so big.

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COST SAVINGS

Intelligent and effective expense reduction simply creates more options for any organization – more ways to

react in any given tactical or strategic business challenge or opportunity. Unified communications is a very

effective way to generate these cost-cutting, money saving opportunities.

The most obvious and widely appreciated cost saving application for unified communications is replacing travel.

The calculations are straightforward, because it is easy to quantify how much a ticket would have cost our

company. However, the potential savings unified communications can deliver do not end there. Consider the

ancillary costs: the taxi to the airport, the meals, and hotel rooms needed. Consider the administrative costs of

booking travel and processing subsequent expense claims.

On top of those costs we must also factor in the opportunity cost of time wasted in the taxi, the airport check-

in, going through security and much of the time in the air. This is all time spent without generating a single cent

of value for our customers. And then there is the cost of micro trips – the frequent trips to different sites

inside a city – which we often fail to quantify and therefore overlook.

Many would claim that they do not need UC to replace travel, because an ordinary conference call would

do the same job. Whereas this may be partially true, the integrated nature of UC creates further money

saving opportunities. With UC integrated into a shared workspace, such as a secure, on-line file store, the

issues of project management or business planning by e-mail plus spreadsheet disappear quickly. Many people

are familiar with the frustrating way of working with spreadsheets being sent from one person to another

as e-mail achments, with each person making changes and creating their own versions, which the originator

must somehow consolidate into a single copy containing everyone's views, and only the latest data.

Replace this with a single, secure and version-controlled copy of the spreadsheet in a location accessible to

the appropriate people. The information can be referenced sequentially by different people, such as following

the sun, to different locations around the globe. Equally, the information can be discussed in real-time, pulling

the document into a web conference meeting so that everyone sees the same version, and all changes are

agreed can be saved back to the single copy.

Finally, we should not forget that the switch to UC is an opportunity to regain management control through

clear assignment of responsibilities. Companies that have not embraced UC typically have a disorderly array

of communication tools in service, and the audio conferencing is a good example of that. In many companies

today, the audio conferencing costs spiral out of control, because different departments rely on different

providers, many of which use premium rated or out-of-town dial-in numbers. Depending on the chosen UC

implementation option, we can save money just by eliminating the audio conference. A UC solution would

typically offer VoIP integration with a company’s IP-PBX (which eliminates the dial-in cost), and there would

be no separate service charges to a whole host of audio conferencing providers, because we would have

negotiated a single, competitive deal with our provider of the UC solution.

IMPROVED BALANCE BETWEEN WORK AND PERSONAL LIFE

Few organizations these days can afford to

dispense easily with the skills and experience of

the people they employ. While no individual is

completely indispensable, it would be reckless of

a company to invest in developing its human

assets, only to then squander them through a

lack of care.

Yet, by failing to give their people the

communications and collaboration tools that

will change the ways in which they work, many

companies are doing exactly that.

In addition to the benefits already listed, an

investment in unified communications offers a solution that can be mutually beneficial - for both employer

and employee.

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With pressures on working habits created by globalization and the ever-present need to remain competitive,

companies are demanding that people become more flexible and adaptable in their work patterns. Frequently,

teams must work effectively across multiple time zones, sharing information and interacting in real-time,

through instant message or conference calls.

Unified communications is a very effective means of giving all employees, and particularly knowledge workers, the

tools to work efficiently from any location - home or the office - at any time of day or night.

However, for companies to gain the full benefits of the power of unified communications this capability must

not be seen as an imposition on staff, getting more and more out of them.

Decisive Adopter companies - like Swiss Re - are seeing this as a two-way street, with the gained benefits of

better, faster communications being 'traded' by offering their employees a work style that can adapt to their

own, personal lifestyle needs. It's a true win-win scenario, as the employer additionally gets a happier, more

productive and loyal workforce.

SUSTAINABILITY, REDUCED CARBON FOOTPRINT

Most methods of travel create a carbon footprint and often the combined effect of the frequent, micro trips

is worse than long-haul travel. Reducing travel by introducing UC serves the direct purpose of reducing CO2emissions, but it also sends a clear signal – to employees and to customers – that a company is serious about

the sustainability of its business and about its corporate responsibility.

The green agenda has been part of the corporate values

of most major companies for years, but what is beginning

to happen is that those companies are also formulating

detailed guidelines for how those values should be

applied to all activities of a company’s day-to-day

business. Metso – with its detailed code of conduct,

striving for ecological sustainability in all its own

operations – is an excellent example of this trend.

In many parts of the world, it is no longer politically

correct to do business with companies that are not seen

to behave in an eco responsible manner. This

phenomenon is no longer confined to public sector procurement but is catching on in the private sector.

Consequently, companies are eager to demonstrate that they do not merely pay lip service to the principles

of sustainable business, but it can be extremely difficult to find quantifiable proof points. Reducing travel,

however, is one such proof point that we can estimate, quantify and publicize fairly easily. It is also an

uncontroversial proof point, because it relates to activities that are mainly internal and do not influence the

product our customers receive.

Obviously, it would not be possible to replace all face-to-face meetings by UC meetings. Frost & Sullivan

estimates that 70% of an average company’s meetings are routine-based working meetings between colleagues

who know each other, whereas only 30% are relationship meetings for which the social interaction is important.

It is fair to say that all working meetings can be conducted via UC without any loss of quality, whereas most

relationship meetings would still need to take place face-to-face. It is in forcing our employees to systematically

consider the different types of meetings and the appropriateness of alternative meeting formats that we begin

to build a culture of sustainable business that involves everybody.

Most relationship meetings are external meetings with customers or partners, but even that is beginning to

change, and using UC for external communication definitely represents the next wave of gains. Telepresence,

for example, will go a long way to allow efficient relationship meetings to take place without travelling.

Moreover, using sophisticated communication tools effectively is a skill, and as more and more professionals

acquire that skill, UC will become second nature, and the number of relationship meetings for which the face-

to-face format is appropriate will begin to drop.

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AT&T Telepresence

The AT&T Telepresence

Solution enables you to

meet with customers,

suppliers and business

partners in multiple

locations around the globe

as if you were all in the same

room.

THE SWISS RE EXPERIENCE:

Strategically Important Communication Tools Shape the Way

Swiss Re Operates

Swiss Re is a leading and highly diversified global reinsurer. The

company operates through offices in more than 25 countries.

Founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1863, Swiss Re offers

financial services products that enable risk-taking essential to

enterprise and progress. The company’s traditional reinsurance

products and related services for property and casualty, as well

as the life and health insurance business are complemented by

insurance-based corporate finance solutions and

supplementary services for comprehensive risk management.

Swiss Re clients include Fortune Global 500 companies, governments and non-governmental organizations.

Swiss Re Meets the Challenges of a Travel Curb

Although usage of all UC tools is increasing, the most dramatic increase has been in Web-based Conferencing

(WBC) using AT&T Connect®. The record was reached in March 2009 with 55,000 participants, up 92%

compared to the same month the year before. Swiss Re has introduced travel curbs as part of a cost control

programme, suggesting that employees use WBC as their main alternative to travelling. Given the many long-

haul trips that Swiss Re’s employees used to make, the travel curbs have been particularly effective, and Swiss

Re registered a peak in WBC usage only a few weeks after the travel curbs came into effect.

Swiss Re Meets the Challenges of Recession by Increasing Efficiency

Risk management and risk engineering is everything to a reinsurance company like Swiss Re. The risk engineers

are located in all parts of the world, and it is essential that they be available to the underwriters and other

employees who are involved in preparing deals. In recent years the pressure on the underwriters has risen, but

due to the increased efficiencies of its internal communication the organization has been able to cope without

increasing staffing levels. Swiss Re is receiving more requests from customers to communicate with it via UC

tools, and this is an area where the company expects to achieve additional efficiency gains.

Many of the efficiencies that we realize through a global organization that is able to collaborate seamlessly

would not even be possible, if it were not for our communications tools.

Peter Münzenmayer, Director, Communications & HR, Swiss Re

Another challenge is to concentrate on good business and on only taking what Swiss Re terms “good risks”.

As every deal is different at Swiss Re, a lot of time and effort needs to go into the preparation of each

individual agreement. Because the work is not routine-based, intense interaction with other colleagues is

necessary. This interaction would have been difficult to achieve without the sophisticated communication

tools that make it easier for staff members to stay focused and to avoid

misunderstandings.

CO2 Emissions Already Reduced by 15%

Swiss Re is the first large financial services company to have the ultimate goal of

becoming CO2 neutral. Travelling is responsible for some 50% of its carbon

footprint, and by rolling out collaboration tools as an alternative to travel, it has

already reduced its carbon footprint by 15% per employee. Swiss Re’s target is to

reach a 30% reduction per employee by 2013.

Many Employees have Achieved a better Quality of Life

Swiss Re’s employees are very vocal about their ability to achieve a better balance

between work and their personal lives due to the reduced need to travel. They feel that

they have more time available and more flexibility to organize the usage of that time.

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THE METSO EXPERIENCE:

Web Conferencing Usage Growing from Within

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and

services to the mining and construction, power

generation, automation, recycling, and pulp and paper

industries. Headquartered in Finland, Metso has

operations in more than 50 countries and employs over

29,000 people.

The company makes extensive internal use of AT&T

Connect® for web-based conferences (WBC) that were

rolled out to all sites by the Autumn of 2005. Metso also

has other UC tools in operation such as instant

messaging. Video Conferencing is used very little.

Tripling Usage in Just Six Months

Metso is a good example of a company where WBC use has grown organically. A commitment to the

professional development of its workforce is one of Metso’s corporate values, and WBC was originally

implemented to facilitate e-learning. Having experienced how well it worked, Metso’s employees started to

use the tool for other purposes and its popularity has since grown.

The recent usage increase has been nothing short of dramatic. The number of minutes per month has tripled

from approximately 300,000 in the third quarter of 2008 to 900,000 in the second quarter of 2009. There

are now about 3,000 events per month with 9,500 attendees. While this growth was achieved without any

particular internal marketing effort, Metso points to the curbs placed on travel as a result of the recession

as having been a major driver.

Making Better Use of the Time

WBC enables Metso to communicate better and more

often. Project teams are able to easily consult with experts

that it could not have justified flying in for a half-hour

meeting. The experts can make better use of their time

while optimally sharing information. Because travel is not

necessary, employees enjoy greater flexibility to organize

their work and can spend more time in the office.

Web meetings have to be planned very carefully to ensure

that participants are actively engaged, but that can

sometimes make them more efficient than face-to-face

meetings. Owing to the emphasis on pre work, it may take

less time to cover a certain number of agenda items in a web meeting, and that is very positive side effect of using

the tool.

Protection of the Environment and Abatement of Climate Change

A key driver of Metso’s business is to develop and offer its customers eco-efficient products and services for the

efficient and sustainable use of energy and materials. Metso has written a formal code of conduct, and striving for

ecological sustainability in all its own operations is a fundamental element of that code.

Sophisticated communication tools play a natural role in minimising Metso’s carbon footprint. The travel guidelines

have been amended, and employees wanting to book travel are now made to critically consider the necessity of

holding a certain meeting face-to-face as well as the necessity of all participants being physically present.

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CONCLUSION

We have shown that UC can generate unique and substantial benefits to organizations and that these benefits

are highly relevant to the challenges facing us as a result of the economic downturn. UC enables us to reduce

and control costs while protecting and even increasing the value we deliver to our customers

There are few risks associated with UC, although classically these types of organization-wide implementations

fail or succeed on how well we resolve the cultural issues, overcoming natural user concerns and resistance

to change, so a successful adoption programme with internal marketing is important. Additionally, depending

on the mode of deployment – on-premise, hosted or managed – we need to consider the wider environment,

such as value chain partners, networks and infrastructures to see how implementation may impact these.

Unified communications already has a well-established reputation for being a ‘here-and-now’ technology that has

the potential to immediately deliver cost savings to organizations that deploy it. However, the impact of the

recession is causing some companies to delay, or even cancel, projects to implement UC. In my view this is simply

the wrong time to take the foot off the pedal on investing in UC.

UC need not be an expensive or a complex solution to implement in your organization. Today, there exists a plethora

of different on-premise applications and hosted services that can be tailored to meet the needs of any size of

business, and which should encourage anyone to try a limited scale trial, perhaps of a single location or department.

Dominic Dodd, Global Program Director, Unified Communications and Collaboration, Frost & Sullivan

As we have seen, the attitudes of companies today towards investing in unified communications products and

services is largely being shaped by individual decision-makers’ understanding of the benefits these technologies can

deliver, and the degree of caution with which they respond to the recessionary climate.

The Cautious Cost-Focused

The cautious, cost-focused organizations are starting to recognize that the very real uncertainty of how long

the recession will last means that ‘digging in’ is simple not an option. They need to be proactive, seeking to make

carefully judged, targeted investments in tools that can make an immediate difference to the bottom line.

The Hesitant Majority

The hesitant majority, still undecided or unconvinced about the benefits of unified communications, need to

stop swimming in circles. They must strike off in a direction which will allow them supply more cost savings

to their business, while helping them maintain or even improve the service they deliver to their customers.

Hosted services offer a near perfect solution, allowing companies to start to experience the benefits of using

unified communications services without potentially risky commitments in capital expenditure, and without

putting a strain on the IT Department. Using hosted or managed services gives us the flexibility to choose

the blend of capex and opex pricing models that best suits our individual needs right now. We can always

migrate these models over time, as our circumstances change.

Decisive Adopters

We have highlighted how the Decisive Adopters now understand how unified communications can play a

crucial role in fundamentally changing the way they do business. These strategic thinkers are looking

several steps ahead, having already planned how they intend to survive and prosper in the recession. Their

goal is to deeply integrate communications within their core business processes to create new forms of

differentiation and competitive advantage. This is not the exclusive preserve of the largest organizations.

Some of the most agile companies on the planet will use unified communications to redefine the

competitive landscape of 2012 and beyond, changing the game to suit their own highly connected, highly

responsive organizational structures.

Darwin and his theory of evolution has been much in the media recently. The global economic downturn is a

major change in the global economic environment. The downturn will eventually end, and when the upturn

comes, it will be an upturn into a changed world, not a reversal into the old pre downturn times. As an example

governance and risk management in the financial sector will have changed radically pre to post downturn.

Darwin’s theory of evolution has been much misrepresented as the survival of the fittest. It is not the fittest

that survive in times of great change. It is the most adaptable. Hoping that if you keep your costs down during

the downturn and go back to business as usual when the upturn comes is a deeply flawed strategy. When the

upturn comes the economic environment will have changed for ever. Will your company have used the

downturn as an opportunity to adapt to and thrive in this new environment as it emerges?

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