Advances in technology have transformed the work culture in many organizations. An emphasis on the 9-5 work culture is slowly fading. Many businesses are either promoting a flexible work environment or providing the option to work remotely. This digital evolution has made it imperative to have a solid Communication mechanism in place.

Uninterrupted communication and collaboration among employees and clients can be achieved by deploying a unified communication (UC)solution. It provides businesses with fast and flexible options to communicate, thereby enabling them to keep up with the shifting preferences of their employees and clients.

Businesses can choose from an array of UC technologies such as Cisco, Avaya and Microsoft Lync to achieve flawless communication. These technologies enable businesses to improve employee productivity and enhance customer service. However, as enterprise communications have been perceived as being complex and expensive, showcasing tangible benefits or hard ROI for this investment is not easy.

In order to calculate ROI on a UC investment, every business has to identify and analyze the factors they are looking to optimize across different areas of their business using a UC solution. These factors might vary for every business, based on their industry, size and the goals that they want to achieve.

Here are few ways a business can conduct an audit to calculate ROI on their unified communications investment.

• • Review existing communication processes:
    • How are employees,across the organization, communicating internally and externally?
    • How much time are employees spending in communication and collaboration to get tasks done?
    • Are there any technologies they are currently using for communication?
    • Is the lack of a unified communication technology causing reduced productivity?
    • Is the quality of customer engagement getting affected due to the lack of proper communication?
  • Technology audit for your staff:
    • What devices do your employees utilize to get work done (mobiles, laptops, VOIP etc)?
    • Are they missing any deadlines, calls or client meetings due to the lack of a UC?
    • How much time are they spending to connect with employees and clients?
  • Envision an ideal scenario:
    • Cut down cost of calls and travel to meetings with clients or employees
    • Enable employees to finish tasks at hand quickly by eliminating delays in communication
    • Make it easier and simpler to manage remote workers

By weighing in the metrics of all the factors measured before and after the deployment of a UC technology, it is possible to calculate hard ROI for a business. We have cited a few examples below, of how companies can calculate ROI.

Example 1: A company with 1000 employees spread across multiple locations globally spends $700 a month on internal and external collaboration. A breakdown of their monthly expenses is as follows:

After deploying a suitable UC solution, the company sawa 60% reduction in costs. This is the result of moving all internal communications to VOIP based communication with UC.

Example 2: A company with 300 employees saves 10 minutes/day of its employees’ time by deploying a suitable UC solution.
Average employee salary: $20/hr
Total time saved in a day for 300 employees*: (300×10) 3000 minutes (or) 50 Hours
Cost savings in a day for 300 employees: $1000

Choosing the right technology plays a key role in reaping all the envisioned benefits and a positive boost in ROI within a short period. However, with so many UC technologies available in the market choosing the right technology can be a challenge. Businesses also need to know that they don’t have to choose only one UC technology for all their needs. Instead multiple technologies can be deployed to meet specific business needs and budget. Nailing down the right technology to be deployed needs advanced UC expertise.

Businesses don’t have to make this decision on their own. All they have to do is choose a vendor with the right expertise. Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing the right vendor:

1. Ensure that the vendor provides end-to-end unified communication services
2. Vendor should be able to optimize UC environment to ensure low TCO over long term
3. Vendor should have expertise to provide acustomized solution to maximize efficiency
4. Vendor needs to monitor UC infrastructure 24x7x365 to ensure everything is up and running at all times

NetEnrich has enabled many clients and partners achieve uninterrupted communication with the implementation of the appropriate UC technology. Contact us to get started with a UC consultation, with NetEnrich UC experts.

*(assuming a 5 day work week and 4 weeks per month)

The post CALCULATE HARD ROI FOR YOUR Unified Communications Solution appeared first on NetEnrich.