Unified Communications (UC) is the integration of real-time and non-real time communication to provide instant and on-demand services to customers. During the last few years, UC has seen enormous growth due to the increasing use of UC by businesses around the world. A report by Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) shows that UC is likely to grow at an annual rate of 32.7 percent per year through 2017 in North America alone. It is being used for many applications such as hosted services, voice calls and other applications.

In the light of this growth, some companies are evaluating whether they need UC for their business at all. The answer is a resounding yes, because UC brings many benefits to companies. Firstly, UC streamlines all communication channels within an organization. Without UC, businesses have to employ people around the clock to interact with customers over the phone or face to face. This is time-consuming and effort-centric and in most companies, it is impossible to implement. The difference in time zones also further complicates the communication process. This is why it is important to have a unified communication model where all the external communications with clients is streamlined.

Statistics by business2community.com show that 73 percent of business related calls go to voice mail. If the mailbox is full, then it is the business that is affected by the inefficiency because customers will tend to move on to competitors. To avoid such shifts in customer loyalty and to strengthen the relationship with customers, it is important for businesses to have a sound UC model.

It is equally important to choose the right service from a service provider who is willing to offer UC as a service. Today, many companies in the UC industry offer only the hardware or the infrastructure and not UC as a service. Going forward, every business is likely to use a combination of UC models because of the flexibility and convenience that comes with it. For this reason, businesses should enter into agreements with service providers who offer it as a service.

Thanks to Unified Communications for the article.