Unify Square Survey Reveals Strong End-User Unified Communications Satisfaction Despite Unreliable Training and Support from IT

BELLEVUE, Wash., Nov. 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Unify Square, the leading provider of software, consulting and 24x7 cloud managed services for Skype for Business, today issued the results of its new survey, The State of Unified Communications (UC) Adoption, which polled IT decision-makers and employees at organizations that have already deployed (or are pilot testing) a UC system. The survey uncovered an unexpected, but positive disconnect between IT and end-users on overall system adoption and satisfaction, with one quarter (25%) of end-users saying they are 'very satisfied' with their organization's UC system, compared to only 1% of IT respondents who believed satisfaction would be that high. While both groups agree that end-user adoption is IT's greatest challenge to ensuring UC success, many IT organizations are not monitoring the UC system or the end-users well enough to optimize usage. This is further proven by the fact that 70% of end-users claim they've never even been surveyed by IT on their UC system satisfaction. Lack of proper monitoring tools and visibility into the user experience are key contributors to this disparity.

"Deploying enterprise UC has turned into a case of IT perception versus end-user reality," said Scott Gode, VP of Product Marketing at Unify Square. "If IT isn't taking the pulse of both system AND end-users on a regular basis, how are they supposed to effectively train end-users or spot issues? The silver lining is that end-users are enjoying their UC experience and want to continue with the platform. By not looking deeply enough into UC system health and user satisfaction, IT is acting as their own worst enemy. But lucky for them, visibility is easily attainable and can fast-track UC ROI."

IT's lack of UC system monitoring results in the following positive and negative disconnects between end-users and IT:

Usage and Satisfaction

High satisfaction ratings by end-users validates the significant productivity gains promised by UC – 80% of end-users believe their productivity has increased after UC was deployed, which is more than IT expected (72%). End-users are also exceeding IT's expectations by integrating popular UC features into their day-to-day work. For instance, only 31% of IT respondents think video is used on a daily basis, but in reality, 42% of end users are indeed using video daily. Similarly, the use of IM and desktop sharing beat out IT's estimates.

Training, or Lack Thereof

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of IT respondents state UC adoption programs and training have either high or very high importance in ensuring UC ROI. In fact, IT believes there are more UC training opportunities and resources available to end-users than end-users actually perceive – 35% of IT respondents said their organization offers instructor led training, whereas only 15% of end-users said they're aware of this option. Over half of end-users (52%) claim their organization does not offer training or don't know. Better awareness about these training programs could result in greater adoption and productivity.

Troubleshooting Tactics and Time to Resolution

Less than optimal training leads to inevitable technical issues. When end-users come across a UC problem, nearly half notify the IT Help Desk they need assistance, while 32% try to fix it themselves, 24% turn to alternative communication applications and 21% simply ignore the issue altogether. In sharp contrast, IT respondents believe that a majority (85%) of end-users will notify the Help Desk at the first sign of trouble and only 10% will try to fix it themselves. Once a UC issue is elevated, IT believes that nearly half (44%) of all Help Desk calls are resolved within 4 hours or less, whereas only about a quarter (24%) of end users experience quick resolution. Nearly a third of the users have no idea how long a resolution takes. 

UC ROI Rests on Proactive System Monitoring

The inability to monitor quality is one of the top challenges (27%) stated by enterprise IT in managing their organization's UC system.  Ironically, given that need and focus, over two-thirds of IT simply try to go it alone without any additional software or services support to help monitor and manage their UC systems.  Only 10% of enterprises leverage a third party partner, only 6% leverage a managed service, and only 4% have any sort of operations software. Additionally, 13% of all IT respondents have absolutely no "assistance" (software, services, etc.) to help with troubleshooting or analysis.

The survey was conducted at the Microsoft Ignite conference in late September of 2016 with over 150 respondents from mid-sized and large organizations.  Respondents self-identified themselves as either IT (managing the corporate UC system) or End-User (using the corporate UC system). 

The full report can be accessed here.

About Unify Square

Unify Square's software, consulting, and cloud managed services power the world's largest Microsoft Skype for Business (SfB) deployments. Built on innovative technology, our solutions create actionable insights and help enterprises transform their unified communications infrastructure, delivering enterprise-grade service availability, data-driven end-user satisfaction, and double-digit ROI increases. Founded by SfB product visionaries, Unify Square is a member of the Skype for Business Partner Advisory Council and one of Microsoft's global elite partners. Our software and services have delivered value to more than 5 million Skype for Business seats, in over 275 global enterprises across more than 50 countries, and in most major industry verticals. 

Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Unify Square also has offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, India, Australia and Singapore.

Email us: [email protected] or visit the website: www.unifysquare.com.

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