How does your enterprise compare? Here are a few highlights of what more than 1,000 companies had to say about their plans for, and experience with, Unified Communications solutions. The report may be accessed at ITworld.

Investing
•    Of companies with >$1 billion in revenues, 23 percent expect to invest >$1 million in UC solutions
•    The financial services segment expects to invest the most, once the investment exceeds $250,000

Drivers of Adoption
•    The BYOD trend in the enterprise is accelerating the rate of UC adoption
•    Integrating these consumer devices into the UC experience is a priority for the high-tech, financial services, and health care industries, as well as for companies earning >$1 billion revenue.

The State of UC
•    90 percent of respondents plan to make some type of UC and collaboration‐related hardware or software investment this year by implementing new systems or upgrading existing systems.
•    More than half of companies with revenue exceeding $1 billion have already deployed UC.

Priority UC Components
•    The most anticipated investments this year are enterprise IP telephony and collaboration applications like email, instant messaging, and enterprise social software 
•    Interestingly, only 36 percent of respondents consider video a key component of their UC solutions.
•    Free tools like Skype and chat, as well as social media tools like Twitter, are not in high demand by enterprise users, at least not yet.

The Cloud
•    Most interesting, only 17 percent have chosen a fully managed or hosted solution, while 73 percent have chosen a premise-based (51percent) or hybrid solution (22 percent). 
•    Companies that have not yet deployed a UC solution expect to take a hybrid approach. 

Deterrents to Implementation
•    #1 – Cost
•    #2 – Integration with existing infrastructure
•    #3 – Lack of expertise for deployment

Interestingly, while security was a key factor for selecting a UC partner, it was not considered a major challenge in terms of implementation. What was most important for companies in choosing a UC partner? Along with security, it is ease of use!