New Forrester reports about UC and VoIP

Forrester published new reports based on their surveys across North America and Europe:

The State Of Enterprise Networks And Telecommunications: 2009 - Business Data Services North America And Europe

Executive Summary

Even given the current economic crisis, enterprises recognize the importance of network and telecommunications (N&T) products and services. What are the top investments and interest areas? Mobility, unified communications (UC), and managed services. A new addition to this survey includes questions about how economic conditions are affecting N&T spending, as well as where purchasing power lies within the IT organization for specific technologies such as UC, landline data, voice, and enterprise mobility.

Report highlights in terms of UC and VoIP:
- Cutting costs is biggest priority.
- Contact center IP migration continues.
- Cost savings, faster communication, and decision speed drive UC adoption.
- Desktop VoIP migration continues.


The State Of SMB Networks And Telecommunications: 2009 - Business Data Services North America And Europe

Even given the current global economic crisis, small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) recognize the importance of networks and telecommunications (N&T) products and services — although spend is not as abundant as in earlier years. What are their investment and interest areas? Wireless and mobility and unified communications (UC). A new addition to this survey includes questions about how current economic conditions are affecting SMB N&T spending and where purchasing power lies within the organization for specific technologies.

Report highlights in terms of UC and VoIP:
- SMBs follow enterprise interest in IP contact centers.
- Majority of SMBs are interested in or are already implementing a UC solution.
- Desktop VoIP adoption continues.

Enterprises Need Innovative Telecom Service Options And Flexibility

The Forrester report "Enterprises Need Innovative Telecom Service Options And Flexibility To Address Cost Pressures" explains why Telecom companies need to offer innovation especially in an economic downturn.

Executive Summary
The global economic recession is extracting a heavy toll on enterprise IT budgets. As a result, sourcing and vendor management executives at multinational firms responsible for network and telecommunications (N&T) are looking for improved flexibility and innovation in service pricing and delivery, along with concessions to help them justify their vendor and service choices. To help clients set expectations on how far they can reasonably push their service providers to be more attentive, responsive, and flexible, we interviewed 29 reference customers of nine major international telecom operators about customer satisfaction. We also used data from two recent Forrester surveys to: 1) identify global multinational enterprise (MNC) N&T service buyers' priorities over the next year; and 2) compare enterprise customers' biggest vendor relationship challenges with some of the largest North American and European network operators. Based on our analysis, Forrester recommends vendor consolidation to remove extraneous players and create a strategic N&T environment and the use of specialists and smaller or regional players for innovative, lower-cost service delivery options.

The Value Of VoIP

Forbes published an article where the SME company RAO explaining the benefits they reached after switching to VoIP. When credit is tight, being able to reinvest in a business means shaving costs elsewhere--like the phone bill.

More mobility with less budget

According to a new Aberdeen Group research report, Best-in-Class companies over the prior 24 month period

• increased the number of employees included in their mobility initiative by 44%.
• employee productivity by 36%.
• have grew the number of mobile devices in full compliance with IT mandates by 33%.

Despite the global economic downturn, or perhaps in part because of it, the enterprise demand for mobility has remained steady or even increased. However, mobility initiative budgets have not; in fact capital equipment budgets are being cut dramatically, and operating expense budgets are being scrutinized and reduced wherever possible. This study reports how Best-in-Class companies - those that are performing in the top 20% across multiple metrics - are managing to maintain or increase their level of mobility support while their budgets are being cut.

VoIP top priority for CIOs

Chief information officers (CIOs) across the United States say VoIP is among the top five areas of IT investment they will invest in over the next 12 months. The survey, conducted by Robert Half Technology, interviewed more than 1,400 CIOs with 100 or more employees.

Article on FierceVoIP

iscoord @ VoiceCon 2009 in Orlando

We had a very successful VoiceCon 2009 in Orlando and our booth was visited by a lot of people.

The time for integrated softphones has definitively arrived and our innovative OEM solutions for IBM and Microsoft UC platforms generated a lot of interest.

Forrester believes that collaboration market will stay healthy

The new Forrester report "Demand Insights: Collaboration Market Healthy Despite Slumping Economy " from March 25, 2009, explains why and how the collaboration market is still in a good shape and sales increasing, also and especially within the SMB segment.

Executive Summary
Although 2009 is shaping up to be a tough year for technology vendors, the collaboration market is proving to be vibrant. The tough economy is forcing companies to restrict travel while keeping distributed teams in touch. In addition, changes in the composition of the workforce mean enterprises must find ways to capture the knowledge of retiring Baby Boomers and provide Gen Yers with their favored tools to work efficiently. These trends have created opportunities for collaboration vendors not just at the enterprise level but also among small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). Collaboration vendors should capitalize on these smaller companies' interest by providing software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings and flexible pricing models.