The organization’s phone system is due for replacement soon. The alternatives for replacement aren’t just phone systems, they are Unified Communications (UC) suites and an array of point solutions for communicating and collaborating. The infrastructure manager must identify and prioritize the UC features and functions that are most needed, valued, and readily adoptable by users in your organization. Critical Insight The most important but often overlooked challenge of the UC project is maximizing user adoption. The more readily users adopt UC, the more business value it will create. Users increasingly have access to consumer tools for communication and collaboration. Many of these tools are free to them but have high costs to secure and support in an enterprise environment, are difficult to integrate with enterprise systems, and have unclear product roadmaps. The case for UC is unclear: should IT invest in UC or take a point solution or best-of-breed approach that leverages low-cost consumer-grade tools? Impact and Result Survey stakeholders and users to validate IT’s assumptions about what UC functions users really want and need. Build a business case on hard data in order to establish buy-in for UC decisions and gain approval. Align the UC roadmap with the end-user computing strategy (as well as networking), especially mobility, to ensure UC functionality is compatible with devices and platforms used in the foreseeable future.

2. Make a Data-Driven Decision on Unified Communications
Quantify the real value and need for UC to make the business case and build a realistic roadmap.
This project is designed for infrastructure managers who are approaching a unified communications (UC) or telephony project and need to define requirements, assess the
value of UC features and functions, or maximize end-user adoption of the next UC solution.
The case for UC is unclear: should IT invest in UC or take a point solution or best-of-breed approach that leverages low-cost consumer-grade tools?
The most critical challenge of your UC project is maximizing user adoption. The more readily users adopt UC, the more business value it will create.
User adoption isn’t just a risk, it’s a whole set of risks ranging from lack of need to poor user experience (caused by poor reliability or interoperability).