Frost & Sullivan research shows that over the past decade, companies have fully embraced unified communication and collaboration (UCC) technology, including Voice over IP (VoIP), conferencing, instant messaging (IM). unified messaging (UM) and team spaces. But while employees are willing and able to use advanced UCC tools to work with one another across cultural, geographic, and physical boundaries, they are increasingly forced to rely on an ad-hoc set of software to do so. It’s the result of a casual approach to deploying UCC tools throughout the enterprise, combined with the impacts of BYOD and consumerization. And it has led to a proliferation of disjointed and disconnected communications applications and services. The often random set of tools may or may not meet all users’ needs, don’t always comply with corporate security and compliance requirements, and are difficult if not impossible to integrate with one another, let alone with back-office applications and processes.

Now, many companies are facing a growing need to consolidate their multiple UCC solutions. Users are looking for a consistent experience regardless of device or location—across mobile endpoints, desktops, executive offices, open spaces, huddle rooms and large conference rooms. That requires a single provider supporting a multifunctional platform that offers audio, video, and web conferencing: marketing and training webinars: on-demand content file sharing: and more. The goal: make communications frictionless, effortless, and more productive.