In 2009, virtually every company you can think of was focused on "survival and then adapting to the core challenges of cost savings," IntelePeer Vice President Charles Studt (News - Alert) said. "Everybody was focused on saving money, squeezing suppliers and reducing operations cost."

 

In 2010, there will be a shift, though the magnitude of the shift is a bit tough to pin down at the moment, the company said. Intelepeer said it is "a bit more optimistic about 2010" for a simple reason.

 

"There's only so much cost cutting you can do," Studt said.

 

Once the optimization is finished, attention must shift to revenue generation and new capabilities to grow the top line, he said.

 

Ultimately, whether you call it unified communications or communications-enabled business processes, or even something else, enterprises will need it as an enabler of their efforts to grow top-line revenue.

 

So the focus will not be so much on what can be done inside the organization, but rather how tools can be used to improve the effectiveness of distribution, channels, sales outlets and mind share with customers. Engaging trading partners and customers will be vital, so if communications can help enterprises do that, they are going to be receptive, IntelePeer (News - Alert) said.

 

"We see movement around using new technologies to market products," Studt said.

 

Notice the shift: instead of "improving communications internally," there is an emphasis on enabling marketing to become more efficient. All marketers have some multi-channel campaign effort planned, Studt said. But only a third actually know how the recipients of messages actually prefer to receive messages. That's a nice opportunity for communications providers, he said.

 

E-mail gets used because it allows tracking, he notes. Can do the same thing happen with voice and text messaging-based communications-based channel? IntelePeer said the answer is affirmative.

 

"If you could deliver a lead as a phone call, you are15 times more likely to convert to a sale, compared to a click," Studt said. In the small and medium business space, where plumbers and dentists operate, there is more value in a phone call to complete a transaction than an online approach, he argues.

 

The analogy is e-mail marketing, which provides marketers with statistics on campaigns. "The same opportunity exists around voice and text campaigns," IntelePeer said.

 

"We really need to make it easy for users to build a distribution list and then create and track messages," Studt said. "Make it simple for SMEs; that will work," he said. "You need to move from offering obscure technology to something a marketing person can use.