SMBs Maintain ‘Conservative’ Approach to Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC)

 The proof is in the research: SMBs continue to remain hesitant toward adopting unified communications collaboration (UCC) applications and tools. A new survey, “Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) Channel Partners Survey” released this month by ReportLinker.com shows a striking difference when compared to adoption rates of their larger counterparts. The survey also shows that although SMBs are maintaining an arm’s length from the technology, UCC is still showing promise in significant growth in the near future.

Most notably from the findings:

• Top restrictions for SMBs to adopt UCC include smaller budgets, limited internal IT resources and “a more concentrated workforce.”
• One-third of survey participants say that their SMB customers are placing a “somewhat large or very large focus” on their UCC strategies.
• Some SMBs are looking to venture into UCC to take advantage of more advanced tools including unified messaging (UM), fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and Web/video conferencing.
• Top benefits of UCC for the SMB include cost reduction, enhanced productivity and environmental-friendliness.

Nevertheless, the unified communications market as a whole will continue to experience projected growth. In fact, according to a new market report by Transparency Market Research, the UC market is slated to experience a CAGR of 15.7 percent from 2012 to 2018 with expected revenue of $61.9 billion.

There are multiple call center solutions that come fully equipped with powerful, game-changing unified communications tools. The future of customer service in the call center will reflect this evolution and sophistication and the ever-growing number of ways that data traffic can be simultaneously handled. As a provider of disruptive, cloud call center solutions, we’re looking forward to seeing where this growth is headed and how companies of all sizes will greet this change.