According to research from independent consultancy Ovum, it found that 40% of companies have a roadmap for implementation throughout their organisation, a significant rise from last year when only 25% said they planned to adopt the model. In another survey conducted by networking giant CISCO, results indicated that 96% of IT decision makers recognised the usefulness of collaborative tools such as UC, with many already taking advantage of web conferencing and other solutions and 77% planning to increase spend on collaborative tools in 2010.
With over 90% of UK businesses using Microsoft products, Cloud computing and UC company Outsourcery say their new hybrid cloud solutions, which integrate with the latest Microsoft hosted technologies, will increase efficiencies and bring the latest hosted solutions within reach of small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs), removing an advantage previously held by large, cash-rich enterprises.
The company says the biggest value that lies within their offering is that it allows companies to sweat their existing assets. Its hybrid cloud solution introduces the concept of taking the scalability, redundancy and advanced features of UC and wrapping them around an existing traditional telephony infrastructure.
Customers will be able to transform their existing PBX into a full, enterprise class UC telephone system with advanced capabilities such as click to call, presence and video conferencing and desktop sharing without any additional capital expenditure or need to upgrade their existing infrastructure. This is particularly attractive to organisations which have home workers or remote sites, and delivers the same functionality to these workers that they would enjoy at their head office, but at a fraction of the cost of more traditional solutions.
A major component in the Outsourcery offering is Office Communicator which provides a low-cost start for those looking to embrace UC and allows organisations to expand their capabilities by including other future products providing a truly scalable solution.
Mark Seemann, Product Strategy & Development Director at Outsourcery said, “It is increasingly evident that businesses are being lured by the strong value proposition offered by UC. As fragile economic conditions place companies under intense pressure to cut down costs and streamline communications, the savings and benefits from this new communications model is empowering these companies. The reason for this popularity is the business benefits which can be gained from such technology including increases in productivity and competitiveness, a reduction in travel and employee costs and increased efficiency for organisations with multiple locations and remote workers.”