Unified Communications Featured Article

There are new signs that business users might finally be shifting more of their IP-based communications to formats other than e-mail.

 

According to the Radicati Group, business users spend an average of 19 percent of their work day (1 hour and 17 minutes) sending and receiving e-mail. In addition, they spend eight percent of their work day (38 minutes) on business social networking sites and seven percent (35 minutes) of their workday using instant messaging.  

 

Survey respondents said they sent and received an average of 108 business e-mail messages per day in 2009, which is somewhat lower than the average of 140 business e-mail messages sent and received in 2008.

 

This is the first year that users report a decline in the amount of business e-mail sent and received, which is directly attributable to the growing use of other forms of communication in the workplace, according to Radicati.

 

That shift also will lead to more "unified communications" features and services likewise migrating to network-delivered rather than premises-based architectures, as unified communications becomes more of a service rather than a product, said recent data from research firm In-Stat.

 

That does not mean a complete migration, but a shift that will have Cisco, Broadsoft, and Microsoft integrating their applications with other hosted service delivery mechanisms, In-Stat (News - Alert) says.

 

“Several flavors of unified communications are emerging from the ‘cloud’” said Dave Lemelin, In-Stat analyst, in a press release. “There are versions that operate as a hybrid mix of customer-owned equipment with managed or hosted services targeting mid-size businesses, those that act as fully-hosted offerings with smaller businesses in mind, and those that are revamped broadband telephony services targeting SOHO users.”

 

As the world economy rebounds, so will unified communications. Total revenues are expected to grow to $39.7 billion in 2013, In-Stat adds.