A recent survey conducted by NetIQ (News - Alert) Corporation, a provider of systems and security management solutions, reveals that though financial considerations influence all IT decision-making, ensuring employee productivity rather than cost savings is a top priority for enterprise adoption of unified communications (UC).

 

The survey, which collected feedback from more than 400 global respondents, also finds that without proper management of disparate UC technologies, organizations cannot measure the return on their investments (ROI).

 

Sixty-three percent of respondents said the main roadblock they face while adopting UC technologies is getting employees accustomed to using them.

 

Without employee buy-in and usage, organizations do not benefit from integrated email, messaging, phone systems and others, signaled the survey. This situation will lead to reducing the return on their UC investments.

 

Only six percent of the respondents said they intend to monitor and measure usage trends and 19 percent have no plans in place to ensure internal adoption, leaving administrators unable to collect productivity metrics and optimize quality of experience (QoE).

 

About 50 percent of respondents shy away from management tools due to the cost involved in it. Forty-seven percent admitted that they do not have the necessary skill sets to maintain and deploy management technology appropriately.

 

 

 

“Balancing cost concerns with the benefits of greater employee productivity is a standard approach to how organizations make technology choices,” said Criss Scruggs, senior manager of Product Marketing at NetIQ, in a statement.

 

“However, these survey results indicate that more often than not, internal IT teams are not well-armed to ensure successful adoption of UC technologies,” Scruggs said.

 

“This makes it even more difficult for them to help end-users master these new technologies so their investments realize a solid return.”

 

To achieve successful adoption of UC, organizations need to monitor and measure UC usage trends and track employee adoption rates, NetIQ said. With proper tools in place, administrators can ease the management lifecycle and leverage monitoring and reporting capabilities to help justify their UC expenditures.