Survey: Costs of Office Communications Server too great for some organizations

The main reasons businesses are interested in UC are its support of enterprise voice, instant messaging and Web conferencing, with these factors being cited by between 48% and 58% of respondents as drivers or significant drivers.

In its analysis, Osterman says that decisions about deploying UC will be affected by which group within an organization leads the effort â€" the e-mail team, telecom group or some hybrid. An organization's investment in PBX and e-mail systems could have a big influence, it says.