2014 State of Unified
Communications
Research Findings
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Executive Summary
The 2013 State of Unified Communications Survey had us worried. For many of those 260 respondents, UC projects
were stuck in neutral. Only 38% had deployed, up just two points from our 2011 survey, and 31% had rolled UC out to
less than 10% of their user bases.
What a difference a year makes. Among the 488 respondents to our 2014 survey, 44% have UC systems deployed and
in use, with an additional 13% planning to be up and running within 12 months. Other data points:
>> 65% of 343 respondents deploying or planning to deploy unified communications say security or compliance worries
have had no effect on their strategies.
>> 62% say improved employee collaboration is a top business driver for UC.
>> 47% say the CIO is involved in developing the strategic UC vision for their organizations.
>> 17% say a lack of WAN bandwidth is the most pressing concern in providing quality of service to UC applications.
In this report, we:
>> Examine the drivers behind renewed interest in UC.
>> Discuss UC-as-a-service and the evolving vendor landscape.
>> Provide recommendations on addressing the problem of federation — or more precisely, the lack thereof.
Respondent breakdown: 31% have 5,000 or more employees; 22% are over 10,000. Education, government, and
consulting and business services are well-represented, and 40% are IT director/manager or IT executive management
(C-level/VP) level.
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v
UC deployment sees 6-point gain
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Competing priorities
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Few UC vendors
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Most growth in 76% and up
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No single barrier to adoption
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Traditional desk phones still common
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On-premises, cloud, or both?
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On-premises UC leads today ...
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... but cloud (hybrid or full) should gain ground
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Microsoft, Cisco fly high in the cloud
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Single vendor vs. best of breed: virtual tie
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81% will secure UC
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Firewall: top UC security choice
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Security worries don’t stop UC plans
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UC threats plentiful
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IT pros develop the strategy
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Collaboration drives UC needs
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Messaging: top UC feature
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Training methods
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How we connect: phone calls, email
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External voice communication technologies
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Network concerns vary
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How much does it cost? No idea
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Collaboration, productivity drive ROI
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ROI analyses on target
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Cisco holds on-premises voice by wide margin ...
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Microsoft owns instant messaging ...
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Cisco also leads Web conferencing ...
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As well as videoconferencing
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Cisco, Avaya lose ground
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Respondent job titles
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Annual revenue
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Industry
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Company size
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Research Synopsis
Survey Name
InformationWeek 2014 Unified Communications Survey
Survey Date
April 2014
Region North America
Number of Respondents
488
Purpose
To examine the challenges and progress around unified communications and collaboration
Methodology
InformationWeek surveyed business technology decision-makers at North American companies. The
survey was conducted online, and respondents were recruited via an email invitation containing an embedded link to
the survey. The email invitation was sent to qualified InformationWeek subscribers.
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