Cloud Communications Investments: A Structured Approach Required for Long-term Success

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Businesses increasingly struggle with selecting communication solutions that provide flexibility, reduce overhead and investment risk, and effectively support remote and mobile workers.  Frost & Sullivan finds many organizations turn to hosted Internet protocol (IP) telephony and unified communications and collaboration (UCC) services to meet these needs.  However, to ensure the long-term viability of cloud communications deployments, such organizations must develop a comprehensive and sustainable communications infrastructure evolution roadmap. Based on the findings of this initial assessment, businesses must then conduct a thorough due diligence investigation of available hosted communications solutions and providers. 

Frost & Sullivan's A Sustainable Approach to Hosted IP Telephony and UCC Services Deployment analysis provides a guideline for successful, state-of-the-art cloud communications infrastructure implementation, finding that hosted IP telephony and UCC services provide significant benefits to businesses of any size and any vertical industry. However, there are certain business scenarios where hosted communications can provide greater value, including small businesses and small sites, distributed virtual organizations with a large number of remote and mobile workers, and organizations with operational expenditure-based technology budgets.

For more information on this research, please email Britni Myers, Corporate Communications, at [email protected].

"There are certain factors that typically trigger the evaluation of new communications solutions and, potentially, the decision to move to hosted communications," said Frost & Sullivan North America Unified Communications Program Director Elka Popova (@EPopova). She notes these include:

• Aging (preferably amortized) premises-based infrastructure that is becoming expensive to maintain due to frequency of repair, service disruption, and limited parts and skilled staff availability
• An expired Centrex contract
• Rapidly evolving user needs no longer met by current infrastructure
• Uncertain or frequently changing capacity requirements
• Need to gain a competitive edge through advanced communications solutions that reduce costs, enhance user productivity, or accelerate business processes

Before deploying a new communications solution on the premises or in the cloud, businesses must inventory their existing assets. Age, functionality, feasibility of upgrade, and amortization schedules of existing investments must be considered before making a final decision.

The next step is to evaluate IT staff capabilities. It is important to note that IT staff will most likely continue to play a key role, even in a hosted communications environment, especially in larger organizations with more complex needs and requirements.

Next, a holistic assessment of user needs allows the organization to decide what new capabilities to deploy in order to ensure user productivity and job satisfaction. The larger the gap between existing capabilities deployed on the premises, on one hand, and user demand, on the other, the more compelling the switch to advanced hosted communications solutions that deliver a comprehensive set of pre-integrated applications.  Also important, businesses must align technology investments with broader business objectives and the company's vision for the future.

"Once businesses have a good grasp of their needs, objectives and existing assets, they must assess available solutions and providers using a set of carefully selected and very stringent criteria," opined Popova. "Most businesses begin their due diligence process with a feature/functionality comparison. For a more holistic assessment, however, they should also consider ease of use and management; networking and endpoint requirements; total cost of ownership (TCO); service quality and reliability; and security and regulatory compliance."

Additional factors that impact the decision to deploy a specific solution and provider may include integration with other platforms and services; customization requirements; and key service provider characteristics and attributes such as vision, track record and market share.

A Sustainable Approach to Hosted IP Telephony and UCC Services Deployment is part of Frost & Sullivan's Unified Communications (http://www.conferencing.frost.com) Growth Partnership Service program. Frost & Sullivan's related research services include: North American Hosted IP Telephony and UCC Services Market, North American Video Conferencing Hosted and Managed Services Market, and Analysis of the Global Telephony Platform and Endpoints Market.  All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

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A Sustainable Approach to Hosted IP Telephony and UCC Services Deployment

Contact:
Britni Myers
Corporate Communications – North America
P: 210.477.8481
F: 210.348.1003
E: [email protected]

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan