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When voice and data travel over the same network, the need to create and maintain a separate telephone network disappears. "That's one of the benefits of moving to a converged environment, versus maintaining two separate networks," says Helen Chan, senior analyst at the Yankee Group research firm. "A huge cost structure is required to maintain two systems."
"Businesses in which PCs are not prevalent for each worker, such as manufacturing, healthcare, or retail, would benefit from an intelligent phone. An intelligent phone used for database information access as an alternative to a PC is likely to be less costly to own, operate, and maintain, and far easier to interact with."
Allan Sulkin, President and chief analyst with TEQConsult Group and a 25-year consultant on telecommunications technology.
- Installation costs for new systems drop by 40% to 60% because a company only needs to purchase and install one infrastructure instead of two.
- A Yankee Group study showed that VoIP systems were about 22% less expensive to operate than circuit-switched networks.
- Costs associated with employee moves, adds, and changes are virtually eliminated because the tasks can be handled in-house simply by moving an IP phone into a different network jack.
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As unified communications applications become more prevalent in the workplace, more organizations are also realizing the associated benefits. Results documented by Sage Research plainly demonstrate that unified communications applications deliver a multitude of benefits--both in terms of employee time savings and financial savings. Unified communications applications not only facilitate productivity improvements for mobile employees, they can also enhance the way in which all employees communicate.
- Organizations using unified communications clients saved an average of 32 minutes daily per employee because presence technology enabled staff to reach one another on the first try.
- Use of softphones resulted in an average savings of $1,727 per month in cell phone and long distance charges. Mobile workers also saved 40 minutes each day, enjoyed greater communications convenience, and generated annual productivity gains of 3.5 days per year through business continuity impact.
- Organizations using unified messaging reported that employees saved 43 minutes per day from more efficient message management while mobile workers saved 55 minutes per day.
- Companies using integrated voice and Web conferencing reported a 30% reduction in conferencing expenses (by making integrated conferencing capabilities available in-house and on-network) and an average savings of $1,700 per month in travel costs.
For others, the savings may simply come from having reduced hardware requirements and operating expenses.
And in today's dynamic business environment, perhaps the most important benefit comes from having a phone system that can change and grow at a moment's notice, enabling new capabilities for more effective communications, streamlining business processes, and improving profitability.
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