Unified Communications Dilemma: Single Vendor or Best-of-Breed

The impact of unified communications and other highly collaborative resources in business cannot be understated as the enterprise now has use of multiple next-generation applications — video conferencing, instant messaging and presence solutions — to improve workflow and enable collaboration from a distance. As such, leveraging unified communications should prove an easy decision for any business.

However, there is still the question of whether deploying offerings from a single vendor or going with a best-of-breed strategy is the better approach, according to a recent blog post from unified communications provider Teo.

As with anything both methods have pros and cons but, according to a report from ITworld, many organizations have chosen to adopt the multiple-vendor approach. That said, each business is different and so there is no single strategy that applies to all companies.

Indeed, while picking individual applications to create a complete unified communications setup may ultimately prove beneficial in terms of price, the user experience tends to suffer. Indeed, the use of disparate solutions can often defeat the purpose of the best-of-breed approach as employees take more time to navigate multiple solutions. At the end of the day, a unified communications solution that is user friendly and convenient has greater appeal to the entire workforce rather than just tech-savvy users.

And, since each tool will have its own capabilities and characteristics, using solutions from different vendors can sometimes make it more difficult to establish a universal usage or security policy.

Another report by Tech Target which also deals with the debate between single vendor or best-of-breed highlighted that using multiple vendors may often lead to interoperability issues as there has yet to be standards established for unified communications platforms.

At the end of the day though, the decision lies with each individual business and may or may not seem so clear cut one way or the other. Either way, executives are advised to conduct thorough research before taking the plunge.

Want to learn more about SIP Trunking and how to integrate it into your current UC strategy? Don’t miss the SIP Trunking- UC Seminarscollocated with ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.