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Unified Communications Survey
Summary Results
Market Connections, Inc.
June 2007
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In April 2007, 201 federal telecommunication decision-makers were interviewed about their communication systems, general business issues, current unified communication status and action plans, and vendor/partner perceptions.
Respondents were all employed by defense or civilian agencies and had some involvement in the implementation of IT and telecommunications solutions.
Background
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Overall Sample Population: Agency and Involvement
You are an employee of which of the following?
Please indicate the scope of your involvement of IT and telecommunications solutions for your agency or organization.
41%
83%
87%
95%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Final decision orapprove
Evaluate alternativesolutions
Direct involvement
Recommendsolutions
Involvement in IT/Telecommunications Solutions
Type of Federal AgencyCivilian or
Independent50%
Defense, Military, or Intelligence
50%
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Overall Sample Population: Job Function and Job Role
Primary Job Focus
Technical59%
Business operations
41%
Are you mainly involved in the daily business operations or the technical aspects of IT and telecommunication systems within your agency?
Which of the following best describes your role in your organization?
10%
16%
24%
25%
25%
0% 10% 20% 30%
Executivemanagement
Admin/purchasing
IT/MIS/IRM
Telecommunications
Program/projectmanagement
Job Role
5
Communication Systems
6
10%
21%
46%
73%
83%
84%
86%
96%
98%
99%
99%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Other
Soft phones
Instant messaging
Wireless laptops
Blackberries, PDAs,etc.
Video conferencing
Cell phones
Desk phones
Fax machines
Desktop computers
Communication Devices or Applications Used
Communication Devices or Applications Used
Virtually all respondents used traditional “wired” technologies within their agencies, such as email, desktop computers, fax machines, and desk phones.
More than 80% of respondents’ agencies also use more mobile-oriented virtual technologies, such as cell phones, video conferencing, and mobile devices, such as Blackberries and PDAs.
Civilian agencies (53%) were significantly more likely to use instant messaging than their defense counterparts (40%).
Which of the following communication devices or applications does your agency currently use?
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Effects of Communication Devices and Applications
Communication Devices: Blessing or Curse in Daily Life?
Blessing, 84%
Curse, 11%Neither, 5%
The proliferation of communication devices, including mobile phones and Blackberries, and technologies like instant messaging has generally been a blessing in respondents’ daily lives. Nearly all of respondents said these devices helped communication in their organizations.
Has the proliferation of communication devices been a blessing or a curse to you in your daily life?
Have these devices helped or hindered communication with people in your organization?
Communication Devices: Helped or Hindered at Work?
Neither, 2%Hindered, 3%
Helped, 96%
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Frequency of Delays or Missed Deadlines
2%
4%
29%
54%
11%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Always
Often
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
Despite the proliferation of communication devices, more than one-third of respondents said that projects have still been delayed or deadlines have been missed in their agencies due to communication difficulties.
How often are projects delayed or deadlines missed as a result of not being able to contact a co-worker or decision-maker in your organization?
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Business Issues and Challenges
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Greatest Challenge to Achieving Communication Goals
2%
7%
8%
17%
20%
28%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Adhering to timelines
Communicating/collaborating withagency personnel
Updating currentsystems/keeping up
with technology
Educating personneland addressing
resistance
Security
Funding/budget
Funding was the most commonly cited challenge for respondents in achieving their agencies’ communication goals.
Security was listed by one-fifth of respondents as the most significant challenge.
(UNAIDED) What do you believe will be the ONE most significant challenge you will face in achieving your communications goals within your agency or organization?
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Priority of Business Issues
Those business issues with immediate impact on the agencies’ missions, including security, reliability, and productivity, were of greatest priority to respondents.
Factors with less immediate, but potentially long-term impact, including collaboration and coordinating a mobile or remote workforce were lower priorities overall.
Defense respondents considered data and communication security and disaster planning to be more of a priority than civilian respondents.
On a scale of one to five where one is an “extremely low priority” and five is an “extremely high priority”, how much of a priority are the following business issues for your agency over the next 24 months?
Priority of Business Issues
Total Priority
Extremely high/Somewhat high
System reliability 87% 54%/33%
Data and communication security 88% 61%/27%
Cost savings 72% 46%/26%
Disaster planning and COOP 77% 39%/38%
Increased productivity 78% 45%/33%
Reduction in delays and missed deadlines
72% 27%/45%
Increased collaboration 70% 38%/32%
Lo
w
P
rio
rity
of
Bu
sin
ess
Issu
es H
igh
Interfacing with other agencies 60% 30%/30%
Increased accessibility to employees 59% 29%/30%
Coordinating a mobile or remote workforce
49% 21%/28%
Business Issues
Key: Total Priority = Extremely high (5) + Somewhat high (4)
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Importance of Capabilities to Agency Mission
Real time notification and identification of employees was considered the most important capability in assisting respondents’ agencies to deliver on their missions.
In general, civilian respondents placed more importance on one-to-one communication capabilities, such as mobile devices and instant messaging than their defense counterparts.
Defense respondents focused on more one-to-many communication methods, such as video and audio conferencing.
On a scale of one to five where one is “not at all important” and five is “very important”, how important are the following capabilities in assisting your agency to deliver on its mission?
Importance of Capabilities to Agency Mission
CapabilitiesTotal
ImportanceVery/
Somewhat
Remote/mobile access to agency files 58% 21%/37%
Real time notification and identification of employees
62% 36%/26%
Video conferencing 51% 18%/33%
Wireless access and networking 54% 26%/28%
Mobile devices 53% 25%/28%
Audio conferencing 47% 15%/32%
Instant messaging/live chats 14% 7%/7%
Lo
w
Im
po
rta
nc
eH
igh
Key: Total Importance = Very important (5) + Somewhat important (4)
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Unified Communications Implementation Challenges
More than three-quarters of respondents considered perceptions and concerns over security to be challenging to unified communications implementation.
Significantly more defense respondents (82%) than civilian (74%) considered perceptions and concerns over security to be challenging.
On a scale of one to five, where one is “not at all challenging” and five is “very challenging”, how challenging are the following to the enterprise-wide implementation of an integrated system that combines IT and telecommunication infrastructure?
Challenge Level of Factors to Unified Communications Implementation
FactorsTotal
Challenge Level
Very/Somewhat
Compatibility with legacy systems 68% 31%/37%
Perceptions and concerns over security
78% 52%/26%
Lack of best practices and clear track record
51% 16%/35%
Complexity of product integration 62% 24%/38%
Reliability and trust in VoIP 57% 27%/30%
Untested technologies 44% 21%/23%
No sound business case 41% 12%/29%L
ow
C
hal
len
ge
Lev
el
Hig
h
No compelling need for new functionality
38% 11%/27%
Key: Total Challenge Level = Very challenging (5) + Somewhat challenging (4)
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Benefits of Unified Communications More than 90% of respondents said
that integrating IT and telecommunications systems would improve data and communication security, system reliability, productivity, and collaboration.
Please tell me to what extent you believe the following would be improved by integrating IT and telecommunications systems.
Improvement of Factors from IT and Telecommunications Systems Integrations
FactorsTotal
improvementSignificantly/Somewhat
System reliability 93% 65%/28%
Data and communication security 93% 69%/24%
Disaster planning and COOP 88% 56%/32%
Productivity 91% 63%/28%
Collaboration 91% 52%/39%
Accessibility to employees 86% 40%/46%
Cost savings 85% 55%/30%
Lo
w
I
mp
rove
men
t H
igh
Reduction in delays and missed
deadlines85% 38%/47%
Interfacing with other agencies 79% 48%/31%
Coordination of a mobile or remote workforce
76% 39%/37%
Key: Total Improvement = Significantly (4) + Somewhat (3)
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Current Status of Unified Communications
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Communication Capabilities Status
28%
28%
44%
26%
24%
50%
15%
14%
71%
14%
12%
75%
10%
10%
80%
9%
10%
81%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Real time notificationand identification of
employees
Instant messaging/livechats
Wireless networkingaccess
Remote/mobileaccess to agency files
Mobile devices
Audio conferencing
Do not currently use or plan to use Plan to use Currently use
While low in terms of current use, more than one-quarter of respondents plan to use real time notification and identification of employees and instant messaging/live chats.
Significantly more civilian respondents (82%) than defense (67%) currently use or plan to use instant messaging/live chats.
Which of the following communication capabilities do you currently use or plan to roll out over the next 18-24 months?
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Development and Roll-Out of New Communication Systems
12%
17%
29%
42%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Program/projectmanagement
C-level/executivemanagement
Telecommunications
IT
IT personnel were most likely to be the primary department involved in the development of new communication methods in their agency.
Telecommunications personnel had a higher level of involvement in civilian agencies (35%) than defense (22%).
Which department or personnel are most involved in the roll-out and development of new communication methods within your agency?
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Roll-Out of a Unified Communications System
24%
14%
9%
4%
23%
11%
10%
0% 10% 20% 30%
We have a fullyimplemented system
We are rolling out thesystem broadly
across the agency
We are conductingpilot tests with limited
groups
We have identified asolution and a vendor
We are investigatingand exploring options
We've talked about itbut haven't started
We have not evendiscussed it
More than 40% of respondents said they were in the early planning stages of unified communications system roll-out.
Nearly one-quarter of respondents said they had a fully implemented unified communications system.
More civilian respondents reported to be in the implementation phase (48%) than defense respondents (29%).
Which statement describes the current stage of your unified communications system roll-out?
Planning: 44%
Research: 13%
Implementation: 38%
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Unified Communications Planning and Implementation
15%
5%
10%
19%
8%
14%
27%
38%
33%
40%
49%
44%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Generally outsourcethe entire solutions
Primarily developsolution in-house
Use off-the-shelfsolutions
Collaborate with avendor or contractor
Defense Civilian Overall
Over 40% of respondents plan to collaborate with a vendor or contractor when addressing their communications planning and implementation.
Civilian respondents were significantly more likely to plan on collaborating with a vendor or use off-the-shelf solutions than defense respondents.
There was less of a consensus from defense respondents on how to address future communications planning and implementation.
Which of the following statements best describes how your agency plans to address future communications planning and implementation?
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Future Investments Needed
1%
6%
17%
22%
22%
32%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Instant messaging/live chats
Audio conferencing
Remote/ mobileaccess to agency files
Mobile devices
Real time notificationand identification of
employees
Wireless networkingaccess
Nearly one-third of respondents said that wireless networking access would require the greatest amount of their organization’s resources.
More than 20% said real time notification and identification of employees and mobile devices would require the most from their organizations.
Of those, which will require the greatest amount of your organization’s resources?
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Vendor Perceptions and Challenges
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Ways Vendors Can Help with Unified Communications
4%
4%
4%
8%
10%
15%
21%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Avoiding over-selling
Assisting with productintegration
Providing variety ofproducts/ solutions
Providing qualitycustomer and technical
support
Having betterknowledge and
understanding of clientneeds
Being moreresponsive
Spreading knowledgeof products/solutions
More than 20% of respondents said that vendors could be most helpful in implementation by sharing their knowledge of products and solutions.
Technical personnel and civilian respondents were significantly more likely to request greater information dissemination and training about products and solutions than business operations personnel and defense respondents.
(UNAIDED) In what ways could vendors be most helpful in assisting your agency’s implementation of unified communications?
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Greatest Challenge in Working with Vendors
5%
7%
8%
11%
18%
26%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Adhering to timelines
Cost
Aggressive sales staff
Systems issues: updating/integrating/ compatibility
Lack ofresponsiveness/communication
issues
Lack of knowledge andunderstanding of client
needs/procedures Lack of knowledge and understanding
of client needs was the most commonly cited challenge in working with communications solutions vendors.
(UNAIDED) In general, what ONE challenge do you most often face when working with outside communications solution vendors to accomplish your goals?
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Sources to Help Address Communications Needs
61%
64%
70%
70%
81%
93%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Manufacturers
Other agencies
Other outsideconsultants
Integrators
Software vendors
Internal resources
Other than internal resources, software vendors were the most commonly cited source for respondents’ communications needs.
Significantly more civilian respondents reported relying on software vendors and manufacturers than defense respondents.
Which of the following sources do you regularly rely on to address your agency’s communications needs?
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Partner With Cutting Edge Solutions
15%
15%
18%
21%
29%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Software vendors
Other outsideconsultants
Integrators
Manufacturers
Other agencies
Respondents most often considered other agencies as offering the most cutting edge communications solutions.
Approximately one-fifth of respondents said manufacturers had the most cutting edge communications solutions.
Which ONE type of partner do you perceive as offering the most cutting edge communications solutions?
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Leader in Unified Communications
4%
4%
5%
5%
5%
10%
63%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Avaya
IBM
Oracle
Siemens
Nortel
Microsoft
Cisco
The majority of respondents considered Cisco to be the primary leader in unified communications.
Significantly more IT personnel and civilian respondents cited Cisco as the leader in unified communications than business and defense respondents.
Business and defense respondents were more likely to name Microsoft than IT and civilian respondents.
Which of the following vendors would you consider the primary leader in unified communications?
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Contact Information
Market Connections, Inc
13135 Lee Jackson Memorial Hwy, Suite 380
Fairfax, VA 22033
703.378.2025
www.marketconnectionsinc.com
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