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LONDON, ON, July 14 /PRNewswire/ — At a time when gas prices and travel costs have reached an historic high, 77 per cent of companies that have deployed Unified Communications solutions have reduced employee travel and trimmed their travel budgets, a new study from Info-Tech Research Group reveals. Unified Communications, technology that seamlessly integrates voice, data and video communications, quickly delivers substantial business and technology benefits to enterprises where it’s deployed.
“As fuel prices continue to escalate, companies will be looking for innovative methods of doing business across long distances,” said Jayanth Angl, senior research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group. “Unified Communications has been a poorly understood concept, but the results of our study show it’s a worthwhile investment that delivers cost and time savings.”
Unified Communications consolidates and integrates various communication elements such as file sharing, instant messaging and audio/visual technology to make remote communications more effective and provide a viable alternative to in-person meetings. The Info-Tech survey on Unified Communications was conducted over the last two months, and included responses from 220 IT managers in companies primarily based in the U.S. The study comprised the survey plus interviews with a broad sample of IT leaders.
“The investment in Unified Communications is going to save us quite a bit of money in travel expenses, “said an IT Director in the manufacturing sector. “We looked at the costs that we incur, and used a ‘what if’ scenario. Our conservative estimate would be 35 per cent less than what we are currently spending.”
Not only business meetings but daily commuting can be reduced with Unified Communications, since employees can now work effectively from a remote location.
“There are of course occasions when face-to-face meetings are an unavoidable necessity of doing business,” Angl said. “But for many situations, businesses will find integrated communications using web conferencing plus application sharing with Unified Communications can indeed reduce the need for travel.”
Angl said based on the study’s findings, more companies should increase their knowledge and awareness of Unified Communications technology for increased productivity and cost savings.
About Info-Tech Research Group
With a paid membership of over 23,000 worldwide, Info-Tech Research Group () is the global leader in providing tactical, practical Information Technology research and analysis. Info-Tech has a ten-year history of delivering quality research and is one of North America’s fastest growing full-service IT analyst firms.
Info-Tech Research Group