Enterprises with 1000 employees are losing £6.5m every
year as a result of fragmented communications, according to a
survey of 517 business users.
The survey, commissioned by Siemens and carried out by Insignia
Research across North America and Europe, has attempted to quantify
the costs of fragmented communications.
The survey revealed that companies that have not embraced
unified communications can lose £1,700 a year per employee in
unnecessary business travel expenses and 7.8 hours a month in
productivity because of poor offsite communications.
According to Eve Aretakis, chief executive at Siemens Enterprise
Communications in North America, the survey helps its enterprises
and the market realise the enormous costs of continuing the
communications status quo in their businesses.
"To get the most conservative view, we asked the researchers to
discount their soft-cost findings by 75%," she said. "Even then the
soft costs work out to more than £4,200 per employee each year
factoring in the hard dollars of travel and communication expenses,
the data shows an annual impact approaching £6,500 per employee no
matter what size the enterprise.
"With these findings, the potential return on an investment in
unified communications becomes most compelling."