Is UC Ready for Digital Transformation?

As businesses make a mass migration toward digital transformation, some wonder if their unified communications can do the same.

An IR survey of more than 500 U.S. IT decision makers showed that about one-third don’t think their existing infrastructure can support the traffic that will come with modern collaboration services.

Walter Monasterio, IR’s vice president of channel and service providers, said that although most businesses see going digital as a positive, not everyone in the business is sure it’s worth the cost.

“Digital transformation is attractive and on everyone’s road map,” Monasterio told Channel Partners. “Everyone wants to find a better connection to their clients and better intelligence, but there are roadblocks in terms of getting buy-ins from everyone in the organization, from executives down to users.”

The IT decision makers posited two main reasons for their UC fears: an inability to pilot and train for the new environment, and a weak infrastructure that lacks the necessary requirements.

Monasterio explained that the cost also intimidates many businesses.

“A company of 5,000 users could be looking at investment in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars to deploy this kind of solution, not only just the technology itself but the business and technology consulting that would need to come with it,” he said.{ad}

He said a key for businesses is to align themselves with an expert to help them navigate all of the various UC vendors and deployments. Partners have the opportunity to offer guidance.

“The promise of digital transformation is real. The solutions now more than ever are in the marketplace for enterprises to take advantage of, but they have to be very clear in [which] parts of their business they’re looking to transform and make sure that they have the expertise, in-house and/or with partner to set out on this journey,” he said.

Monasterio said that while getting buy-in from the business team is crucial, it’s also important to improve deployment planning. Darc Rasmussen, IR’s managing director and chief executive officer, said companies need to ensure the reliability of their UC environments.

“Organizations need executive commitment to deliver an optimal user experience and must invest in a performance-management solution that can assess network readiness and be able to troubleshoot and remediate problems quickly,” Rasmussen.