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Unified Communications/Voice Solutions

Making the Business Case for Unified Communications
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Use the Cisco IPC Cost Savings Calculator to estimate the benefits your organization could achieve.


Read a longer version of this article.


For greater detail on benefits, see "Enhancing Business with Smarter, More Effective Communications."


Sage Research has produced two white papers on "Productivity and the IPC Business Case." Read the version for large enterprises – or small to medium-sized businesses.


Watch an online seminar on "Bottom-line Savings and Productivity Gains."

Take full advantage of your existing IP network to deliver new communications services.


Today, business executives understand that Internet Protocol-based (IP-based) solutions operating over a converged voice-and-data network are the best choice to replace aging telephone systems. But because the expense for fully implementing Voice over IP (VoIP) and unified communications also impacts the data network, you want your investment to deliver a rapid and adequate return, with both strategic and financial value.


Cost savings are an important part of the decision, but any communications business case should also consider the broad range of resulting financial and strategic improvements, including:


  • More effective communications
  • Increased user and IT productivity
  • Greater operational resilience
  • Better customer service

ROI Factors

In general, consider four major categories when calculating potential ROI for unified communications:

  1. Reduced hardware, software and maintenance costs
  2. Reduced network management costs
  3. Improved line usage
  4. Increased productivity for users and IT staff.

Productivity Enhancements

Other factors can increase productivity for end-users, IT staff, or the organization as a whole. Examples include:

  • Reduced "telephone tag"
  • Anytime, anywhere access to telephony features for mobile workers
  • More efficient, easier-to-use call-handling features
  • Unified messaging
  • Integration with core business applications
  • Less travel to remote sites
  • Simplified management of converged voice and data network
  • Fewer support staff required, even with network growth
  • Reduced training requirements
  • Increased call-center call volumes
  • Improved customer satisfaction from better call handling and responsiveness
  • Increased call-center productivity through voice calls, e-mail, and interactive Web sessions
  • Selected data and applications can be presented on the phone displays, which benefits employees without computer access

Deployment Scenarios

The Cisco Unified Communications system can help you take full advantage of your existing IP network to deliver new communications services. Whether implemented individually or in combination, the products help you reap the highest possible productivity and cost-savings benefits and achieve a fast, measurable ROI in a variety of deployment scenarios, including:


  • Greenfield : A new telephone system is installed to serve a new or relocating facility
  • Centrex Replacement: The recurring costs of an outsourced service are replaced by an internally owned telephone system
  • Multisite Centralized Call Processing: Replacin g separate systems within a company or region with centralized call processing presents significant potential for reducing costs, consolidating redundant infrastructure, and standardizing network services
  • Single-site PBX and ACD Replacement: The need to replace aging or obsolete voice infrastructure often begins the migration to IPC
  • IP Telephony: Cisco products can integrate with existing PBX and key systems to help you migrate gradually to IP telephony while protecting current technology investment

Additional Benefits

Other advantages derived from deployment come in the areas of unified messaging, rich-media conferencing, call-center productivity, and network management.

 

Unified Messaging: With unified messaging applications, Cisco Unity can accelerate further consolidation because it shares the same directory as Microsoft Exchange or IBM Lotus Domino. Subscriber moves, adds, and changes activity can be performed in one place, eliminating redundant tasks and saving the typical cost of US$75 to US$100 per change. User features, such as the ability to change passwords on a Website instead of calling the help desk, can reduce technical support costs.

 

Rich-Media Conferencing: Videoconferences and collaborative Web sessions are growing in importance because they promote collaboration and offer an improved user experience. But the hard benefits are substantial as well: Sage Research found an average reduction of 30% in conferencing expenses (with in-house conferencing) and $1700 monthly on travel avoidance by using rich-media conferencing. It also reported that unified communications-enabled employees save an average of 55 minutes per day, and that conferencing, soft phones, and other unified communications applications significantly reduce costs for travel, long-distance, and nonintegrated videoconference services.

 

Call Center Productivity: A study conducted by Sage Research for Cisco showed that among customers using IP communications in call centers:


  • 74% reported generating an additional $5000 or more per month per sales agent
  • Nearly 50% reported agents handled an average of 30 or more additional calls per day
  • 67% reported being able to assist an additional ten or more customers per day
  • 91% reported completion of an additional 10 or more outbound calls per day, per agent

Network Management: Many companies have found that an integrated network and the Cisco network management applications, particularly those for unified communications, improve the productivity of network staff and accommodate network growth with the same staffing levels. Installation costs for new systems drop by 40% to 60% because a company only needs to purchase and install one infrastructure instead of two. And a Yankee Group study showed that VoIP systems were about 22% less expensive to operate than circuit-switched networks.