Bias, rivalries can threaten UC deployments

Network World - Contention and biases among innovation and business factions can derail the deployment of unified communications systems that are efficient, cost-effective and simple enough to use so they to tell the truth get adopted by end users, according to a Forrester Innovation study.

The report even identifies the vendors that six factions within corporations might favor based on their job tasks and past experience, according to "The Unified Communications Civil War," by Forrester analyst Art Schoeller.

Many businesses fragment the decision making for the elements that make up UC -- voice, video, conferencing, messaging, email -- in short wind up with less than optimal systems, Schoeller says. "This has resulted in an installed base of best-of-breed solutions, with each deployment having unequalled sets of inefficiencies," he says in the report.

To get around this problem, he recommends an overarching team that sets a unified roadmap for the project and that includes representatives of business units.