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Indeed, satisfaction levels are solid
among both users and IT departments.
Even so, a survey by Unify Square sug-
gests that IT departments lack accurate
insights into the UC end user experi-
ence. IT departments, it turns out, have
some misconceptions about the type of
tools being used, the degree to which
UC tools are employed and the strug-
gles users face.
“This discrepancy shows early signs
of a lack of understanding on the part of
IT regarding how end users are using UC
and common challenges they face in fully
integrating the system into their day-to-
day,” surmised the study.
Perhaps it’s not surprising. UC is a
complex area, with lots of fast-moving
and quickly changing parts, plus the add-
ed complexities of BYOD and distributed
workforces. At the same time, IT depart-
ments are largely going at it alone. Near-
ly two-thirds of enterprises default to
what Unify Square calls the “brute force”
method of assigning dedicated IT staff
to manage the UC system. Only one in
10 of those surveyed leverages a third-
party partner, while 6 percent leverage a
managed service and just 4 percent have
access to any type of operation software
to help with the overall management,
monitoring and analytics of UC systems.
Considering the disconnect uncovered
by Unify Square’s survey, IT departments
may not only see the need for increased
attention and investment in UC enable-
ment but also may admit they need more
help from partners and providers.
For starters, user productivity due to
UC systems and satisfaction levels may
be higher than IT departments think.
While nearly three quarters of IT depart-
ments surveyed believe their users are
more productive due to UC systems, a
full 80 percent of actual users credit
their UC systems for improved pro-
ductivity. All the while, IT believes
that only slightly more than 1 per-
cent of users are “very satisfied” with
the UC system. Among those that
have been surveyed for satisfaction,
however, a full quarter of end users
report to being “very satisfied,” while
only about half as many users are
dissatisfied as IT believes.
Incidentally, 70 percent of users
have never been surveyed, or don’t
recall being surveyed, about their
UC system satisfaction, so here’s one
area where solution partners can
quickly help.
“If IT isn’t taking the pulse of both
system and end users on a regular
basis, how are they supposed to
Unifying IT assumptions with
user experiences
Source: Unify Square
Resolution Time for UC Issues
Source: Samsung; Channelnomics
nies
Source: Samsung; Channelnomics
e
Other
9%
Guest
Wi-fi
8%
ver
nies
6.3%
Software offerings
Hardware offerings
Services
Vendor relationships
Knowledge
More training
Improved vendor-partner relationships
More certifications
Different/better product
Better marketing
Other
20.0%
Source: IHS Markit
Global hosted hosted VoIP and UC seats
will pass the 70 million mark in 2020
$2,000
$4,000
$6,000
$8,000
$10,000
$12,000
$14,000
$0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Revenue
Seats
Global Revenue (US$ Millions)
Global Seats (Millions)
2015
2020
$0
$5
$10
$15
$20
$25
$30
$35
$40
$45
$50
Four Hours One Day Two Days Over a Week Never
Don’t Know
End User
IT
44%
32%
35%
24%
8%
0%
3%
2%
32%
6%
3%
13%
CUser
C
16
THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S
PLAYBOOK
By
Martin
Vilaboy
I
t’s fairly well-established, including in
numerous surveys and studies, that unified
communications capabilities improve
worker productivity, and workers like using them.