INX Blog

Goal for UC: Business Collaboration or Communication?

The measurement of returns is a key concern with any IT investment. The most noteworthy ROI publicly documented as resulting from unified communications (UC) is a reduction in travel created by video conferencing and telepresence. In fact, that has been a driving force for much of the adoption of UC solutions to date. In order for CIOs to move from considering an increase of their investments in UC to taking action, they need to see additional tangible avenues for measuring ROI.

Nailing the business case is often the issue that keeps companies from moving forward with UC.  Perhaps a shift in perspective will help. What if the goal for UC is really a matter of increasing collaboration with the enablement of rich communications as the means to support that outcome?

Unarguably, in a knowledge-based business environment, the need to improve worker productivity is growing. Whether due to less budget for new hires or the requirements to meet strategic company objectives, the need to do more with less is a refrain that continues into 2010. 

As a result, companies need to address hindrances to productivity such as:

• A lack of access to information and colleagues.


• Delays to decisions based on the ability to locate and connect with subject-matter experts.


• Limited participation by geographically dispersed or traveling team members.

Collaboration capabilities can lessen or even eliminate those limitations. This often means the difference between hitting milestones and managing customer needs or dealing with delays and pushing deadlines that result in diminished customer satisfaction.

When companies enable collaboration for project teams, they are applying UC to an activity that can be measured; for instance, start and end dates, milestone goals, and deliverable requirements. If CIOs measure the ability of their company's teams to complete tasks and projects faster while delivering satisfying customer results—instead of trying to measure returns based on the technology alone—they can prove the ROI of their investment in UC by turning their focus to collaboration as the goal.

UC Helps Business Harness Information Silos

One of the biggest impacts of collaboration on the enterprise is the increased ability to find and use the right information at the right time. But, recent research findings differ. It would appear that there's either way too much information to make sense of, or that the ability to find what we need is severely limited—depending upon who you ask.

Collaboration powered by unified communications can help streamline the information flow. It's all about harnessing the silos you have now while working to make the boundaries to the information contained within them more fluid. Eliminating silos has been a battle cry for increasing informational access. But, perhaps that's too big an effort for many enterprises to tackle during this period of do more with less.

Consider simplifying your efforts.

Last month's post, Workspaces Put an End to Mass Project Emails, discussed how to end the chaos of overflowing email which also serves to create silos of information for project teams. Increasing productivity—even amidst silos of information—becomes possible when the information critical to completing a project can be compiled within a workspace and made accessible to all project members, regardless of which silo or system sourced it.

One way to accomplish this is by enabling access to subject-matter experts via unified messaging, presence and video conferencing. This access allows your workers increased ability to actually find and gain access to the information they need. Once discovered the information can be added to the workspace for the entire team to use to do their jobs better...and faster.

The truth is that most companies produce silos of information created around areas of expertise. That's the nature of departmental work. You have your contact center silo, your solution area silos, your sales silo and marketing silo, to mention a few. Each of those areas is a concentrated niche of expertise that includes the subject matter experts who can facilitate access and establish context for how the information can best be applied to the project at hand.

The inherent problem with a "silo" is that it's limited by how data is accessed and used. Data usually has only one way in and one way out. Based on the demand for access to information that meets a workers' needs at a specific point in time, the better choice may be to improve collaboration across silo boundaries.

Perhaps harnessing your existing information silos via unified communications and collaboration is a more compelling and economically feasible approach than attempting to merge all of your information islands together while struggling to maintain the integrity of the data simultaneously.

What do you think?

Collaboration powered by unified communications can help streamline the information flow. It's all about harnessing the silos you have now while working to make the boundaries to the information contained within them more fluid. Eliminating silos has been a battle cry for increasing informational access. But, perhaps that's too big an effort for many enterprises to tackle during this period of do more with less.

Consider simplifying your efforts.

Last month's post, Workspaces Put an End to Mass Project Emails, discussed how to end the chaos of overflowing email which also serves to create silos of information for project teams. Increasing productivity—even amidst silos of information—becomes possible when the information critical to completing a project can be compiled within a workspace and made accessible to all project members, regardless of which silo or system sourced it.

One way to accomplish this is by enabling access to subject-matter experts via unified messaging, presence and video conferencing. This access allows your workers increased ability to actually find and gain access to the information they need. Once discovered the information can be added to the workspace for the entire team to use to do their jobs better...and faster.

The truth is that most companies produce silos of information created around areas of expertise. That's the nature of departmental work. You have your contact center silo, your solution area silos, your sales silo and marketing silo, to mention a few. Each of those areas is a concentrated niche of expertise that includes the subject matter experts who can facilitate access and establish context for how the information can best be applied to the project at hand.

The inherent problem with a "silo" is that it's limited by how data is accessed and used. Data usually has only one way in and one way out. Based on the demand for access to information that meets a workers' needs at a specific point in time, the better choice may be to improve collaboration across silo boundaries.

Perhaps harnessing your existing information silos via unified communications and collaboration is a more compelling and economically feasible approach than attempting to merge all of your information islands together while struggling to maintain the integrity of the data simultaneously.

What do you think?