2012 Unified Communications & Collaboration SURVEY. Exclusive Research from

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1 2012 Unified Communications & Collaboration SURVEY Exclusive Research from

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Productivity Improvements, Flexibility Key Drivers of Unified Communications and Collaboration Investments Size of firm major influencer in deployment strategy and future investment plan. Sixty one percent of companies that are investing in unified communication and collaboration (UC&C) solutions including advanced telephony, unified messaging, videoconferencing, presence management and collaboration software want to boost productivity, according to a March 2012 survey conducted by IDGE Enterprise. The survey, among 1,105 IT and business professionals with UC&C investments currently underway or planned at their organizations also finds increased flexibility for employees (42 percent) and faster response times or faster delivery of information (39 percent) among their top three goals. Only 28 percent cited reducing travel costs as an important reason for investing in UC&C, although large companies were more likely to consider it a priority. Respondents in education and government, as well as those working at mid sized companies, are more likely to value increased flexibility for employees than others who took the survey. Nearly four out of ten respondents (39 percent) expect their organization s UC&C investments to hit or exceed $250,000. Among large companies (defined as $1 billion or more in annual revenue), 71 percent anticipate their UC&C investment will hit or top $250,000 while nearly a quarter of that group expect to spend at least one million dollars in that area (23 percent). Respondents in financial services companies are significantly more likely to anticipate their UC&C investments will cost $250,000 or more versus those in other major industries analyzed. Around two thirds of respondents (67 percent) said the influx of consumer devices such as smartphones is accelerating their plans to invest in UC&C, but only 20 percent cite this trend as a significant influence. Respondents in high tech (74 percent), financial services (73 percent) and health care (72 percent), as well as companies with $1 billion or more in revenue (74 percent), are most likely to view consumer devices as driving faster adoption of UC&C. Though many factors contribute to a company's UC&C deployment decisions, survey results suggest, overall, that the size of a firm is a major influence on how UC&C technologies are deployed as well as the firm's future investment plans. On the Edge of Ubiquitous Just over half of those surveyed (51 percent) are currently running UC&C solutions, and survey results suggest these technologies and tools are poised to become ubiquitous. The larger the company, the more likely it is to be using UC&C solutions already. Sixty two percent of companies with $1 billion or more in revenue have already deployed UC&C, compared to 53 percent of companies with revenue between $100 million and $999 million. The smallest companies, with revenues of less than $100 million, are most likely to be in the planning stages. Among industries, high tech companies are somewhat more likely than other firms to be using UC&C now, while manufacturing, education and retail are lagging behind. Most organizations, however, are pushing ahead with new UC&C investments. Sixty percent of respondents said they are planning to implement new systems or upgrade existing ones within the next three years. How quickly they'll move appears closely related to the size of the company. Nearly all respondents (90 percent) say they'll IDG Enterprise Unified Communications and Collaboration Survey March

3 make some type of UC&C related hardware or software investment this year. But companies with less than 1,000 employees generally have a longer investment horizon one to three years, instead of within the year than companies with 1,000 or more workers. Among companies that plan to buy UC&C related technologies this year, the majority said they'll purchase enterprise IP telephony, such as VoIP (55 percent), and collaboration applications such as , instant messaging and enterprise social software (51 percent). Building on Infrastructure As companies build out their UC&C systems, they're more likely to start with voice or telephone centric systems (43 percent) than with messaging or systems (27 percent). Voice or telephone centric approaches are favored across industries. However, financial services companies are about equally likely to take a messaging based approach (38 percent) as a voice centric approach (36 percent). Meanwhile, companies with 1,000 or more employees are more likely than companies with fewer workers to favor messaging based systems. Few companies are approaching their investments by working to UC enable specific applications (13 percent) or build out UC from video centric systems (4 percent). On the application side, telepresence video and systems, as well as social media tools, generate a lot of attention. But so far, these technologies have gained traction primarily at large companies. For example, 52 percent of respondents said they're investing in telepresence, but most of them are spending only moderately. Only 36 percent of respondents consider video to be a key component of their UC&C approach. But companies with 1,000 or more employees are far more likely than companies with fewer employees to put a high value on either technology. Even free videoconferencing tools aren't widely used right now: less than half of respondents (48 percent) use Skype and only one fourth use video chat via instant messaging. Companies may consider free tools to be testbeds, however. They're more likely to be used by companies in the planning stages for future investments than by those that have already deployed UC&C tools. Fewer than half of respondents (48 percent) say their companies have implemented or will implement social media tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook as part of their UC&C deployments. Again, large companies are more likely to have deployed these. The findings suggest, however, that IT executives are more aware than other respondents of social media use at their companies. More than half of heads of IT report that social media is or will be included among UC&C investments. Respondents in high tech and government are more likely than respondents as a whole to have already implemented social tools. No Big Shift to the Cloud Companies that deploy UC&C have a choice among four deployment models: a private, on premise implementation; managed services; a hosted solution or a hybrid deployment, which mixes on premise and hosted technologies. The majority of companies today (51 percent), are deploying UC&C on premise. One fourth (22 percent) currently favor hybrid solutions, while a few have adopted a managed (8 percent) or hosted (9 percent) approach. IDG Enterprise Unified Communications and Collaboration Survey March

4 Preferences for on premise versus off premise deployment may relate, at least in part, to companies' general skepticism about public cloud deployments. Another possibility is that mid market and large companies, which are more likely to favor on premise models, tend also to be earlier adopters, and they may have invested in UC&C solutions before there were as many off premise options. Our findings suggest hybrid models may find more favor in the future, however. Companies with the longest planning horizon are more likely to favor a hybrid approach versus companies that are currently using UC&C solutions. Staffing considerations may also influence decisions about whether to deploy on premise or offpremise solutions. Among companies that are currently using managed, hosted or hybrid models, 58 percent expect that doing so will free up IT staff for other projects. Cost and Integration Are Big Challenges Cost is the biggest obstacle to investment in UC&C, cited by 54 percent of respondents, and companies with longer planning horizons are more likely to worry about funding. Meanwhile, nearly half (47 percent) face challenges integrating UC&C technologies with their existing IT infrastructure, and a third lack the expertise they need for deployment. Integration is a greater obstacle for large companies, as well as for companies that are deploying UC&C solutions within the year. Lack of expertise is a bigger concern for companies with less than 1,000 employees as well as for firms that are deploying UC&C imminently. Although information security is among the most important factors when decision makers select UC&C vendors, respondents don't consider it to be a major obstacle. Only 31 percent cited security and privacy as a challenge. It's more of a concern in health care where 44 percent named security and privacy as an obstacle than in other industries. Ease of Use Tops Decision Criteria Given that UC&C technologies impact end users day to day work, are visible to top corporate executives and traffic in corporate data, it's not surprising that decision making about UC&C investments is a high level affair. CIOs and senior IT leaders are most likely to be involved with purchase decisions, according to 63 percent of respondents (that figure jumps to 72 percent when looking at companies with 1,000 or more employees). The larger the company, the less likely business leaders will have a major role; however, 53 percent of respondents overall say top business leaders participate in UC&C purchase decisions. Also expected, considering the high profile of UC&C technologies: ease of use and security top respondents' criteria when choosing vendors. More than 80 percent cited these factors as critical or very important to their decisions. Meanwhile, just under 80 percent noted ease of management and maintenance, vendor support, total cost of ownership and ease of integration as important. How respondents weigh more than a dozen decision factors varies by industry, however. For example, slightly less than half of respondents (47 percent) cited security as a critical factor. But for financial services companies, security is paramount: 64 percent deemed it critical. Large companies, as well, weigh security highly: 52 percent of companies with 1,000 or more employees consider it critically important. IDG Enterprise Unified Communications and Collaboration Survey March

5 A Few Vendors Capture Mindshare Respondents were asked to name up to 10 vendors who they considered UC&C thought leaders. Among those who did, half cited Cisco, followed by Microsoft (32 percent) and Avaya (22 percent). They also listed nearly two dozen other vendors with a variety of products and services, including providers of networking and communications gear, telecommunications services and enterprise software. These results may reflect the fact that UC&C is a broad label, encompassing a wide range of technologies, from back end infrastructure to front end applications. Thirty percent selected none representing an opportunity for vendors to take action towards gaining traction in this area. Methodology & Respondent Profile IDG Enterprise s 2012 Unified Communications and Collaboration survey was conducted online among the audience of six IDG Enterprise brands CIO, Computerworld, Network World, CSO, InfoWorld and ITworld via pop up and invitations, between February 14, 2012, and March 6, 2012 with the goal of gaining a better understanding of UC&C solutions investments and plans taking place today and in the future. A $250 cash prize was offered as an incentive for completing the survey. Respondents must have indicated personal involvement in at least one or more stage related to decisions around their organization s communication systems (e.g., phone, messaging, video conferencing) and that their organization is currently using or planning to implement or upgrade unified communications and collaboration solutions to be considered qualified respondents. Results are based on 1,105 completed surveys. A broad range of industries are represented including high tech, telecom and utilities (19 percent), manufacturing (13 percent), financial services (12 percent), healthcare (10 percent), education (10 percent), government (9 percent) and services (8 percent). Company size distribution by annual revenue is as follows: <$100 million (34 percent), $100 million $999.9 million (17 percent), $1 billion or more (28 percent). Ten percent are employed in non profit or government entities while an equal number did not provide an answer. Forty six percent work in companies with more than 1,000 employees and 52 percent are employed by companies with fewer than 1,000 employees while 46 percent work in companies with more than 1,000 employees. Half (50 percent) of the respondents indicate they are a top IT/security executive of their business unit/organization. Fifty four percent of respondents hold an executive IT job title, 21 percent hold a mid level IT title, 15 percent hold an IT professional title, 7 percent hold a business management title (3 percent indicated other). The margin of error on a sample size of 1,105 is +/ 2.9 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence interval. Percentages on single select questions may not sum to 100 due to rounding. IDG Enterprise Unified Communications and Collaboration Survey March