This document discusses how unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions can improve interdepartmental communication and collaboration. It notes that with trends like remote work, UC&C technologies have become mission-critical for enabling effective internal and external communication. These solutions provide flexibility by combining real-time and asynchronous collaboration tools. Research is cited showing UC&C can deliver significant benefits like increased customer retention, employee productivity, operational efficiency and sales cycle reduction. The article advocates that UC&C can empower different departments and workstyles, and is important for improving processes that require interdepartmental collaboration.

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1CIOReview
CIOReview
COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIAL
T h e N a v i g a t o r f o r E n t e r p r i s e S o l u t i o n s
NOVEMBER 18- 2015 CIOREVIEW.COM
Joel Semeniuk,
Chief Innovation Officer
Angela Hlavka
Chief Strategy Officer
Jeremy Short,
Chief Executive Officer
Collaboration Solutions:
Reimagining
“Working Together”

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UC&C Solutions Bridge LOB
andWork style Divides
By Georgia Jarrard, Global Collaboration Solutions/Acquisition, PGi
T
he interplay of different departments within an
enterprise is extremely important for business
efficiency. Companies are increasingly data-driven,
and the speed at which information is created and
exchanged today means that staying on the same page is harder
than it's ever been.
Luckily, evolving right alongside this deluge of
information are the tools that businesses use to stay connected,
communicative and collaborative: unified communications
and collaboration tools. There's a reason why Transparency
Market Research has the UCaaS market exploding over the
next 5 years, approaching nearly $40B by 2020.
Businesses have to collaborate —plain and simple. And
UC&C is increasingly how they're doing it.
Driving meaningful results
One of the reasons why I'm so passionate about collaboration
is that I've seen firsthand how it impacts and affects every
single department within an enterprise. From sales to IT, from
marketing to operations and everything in between, every
department across an enterprise has to collaborate effectively
to be successful.
And this would be true even if we weren't in the middle of
a flexible working revolution, where it's increasingly common
for our closest colleagues to have the freedom to work from
anywhere at any time. Technology and evolving workstyles are
converging in a way that's made effective virtual collaboration
an absolute business imperative rather than merely another
available tool in the toolbox.
It might sound like ‘sales speak,’ but unified
communications and collaboration solutions really and truly
provide tangible benefits for every line of business within an
organization. And while it's one thing to claim across-the-board
improvements, it's another thing entirely to back them up,
which is what research from Aberdeen has done. According to
Aberdeen Research, companies that leverage next-generation
communications technologies (integrated voice, mobile, video
chat, etc.) saw-
• 128 percent increase in customer retention.
• 650 percent increase in employee productivity.
• 125 percent increase in operational efficiency.
• 140 percent increase in sales cycle reduction.
These are numbers any management
team would kill for, and companies are
achieving these results by providing
their employees with technologies
they actually need.
Collaboration isn't a ‘nice-to-
have’ conversation; with trends
like globalization, remote work
and always-on connectivity
all firmly entrenched in the
enterprise, UC&C technologies
are mission-critical tools for
enabling effective communication
both inside and outside
of your organization.
E m p o w e r i n g
flexibility
However, tradi-
tionally communi-
cations tools have
been some
Georgia Jarrard
CIO INSIGHTCXO INSIGHT

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what stodgy in the flexibility they provide each employee. In
other words, there's only one option provided through which
you can collaborate with your coworkers. If it doesn't work for
you or their workstyles, tough luck.
Fortunately, UC&C tools have evolved to create
opportunities for each department across an organization to
define their own workstyles and collaborate in ways that are
meaningful and effective for them. Differences in process
and priority, or even just geographic location, can necessitate
different means of communication, and UC&C addresses this
head-on by combining so many different options together.
The key trend that's again emerging here is one of flexibility.
As our workstyles themselves become more flexible, so too are
the tools we use to stay connected and collaborative with our
colleagues. By merging real-time, synchronous collaboration
(like video and audio conferencing)with near-time,
asynchronous collaboration (like instant messaging and online
workspaces), companies create a better virtual environment in
which each department not only succeeds but also thrives.
Improving interdepartmental communication
You'd be hard-pressed to name a process or function across
your organization that doesn't, at some stage or another,
require collaboration in order to be successful. Sales, for
example, while stereotypically viewed as something of a
lone-wolf sport, increasingly relies upon marketing for leads
and product collateral, engineers for technical assistance and
support, implementation specialists to guide their accounts
through deployments, customer care to ensure support needs
are met on their accounts, etc. And without an effective way
to communicate and collaborate with all of these constituents,
suddenly ‘herding the cats’ becomes your full-time job rather
than focusing on your specific area of responsibility.
It’s very important to weave collaboration into the processes
and protocols that keep your business running. And like most
business processes today, technology is the key to unlocking the
efficiency and productivity your teams need to be successful.
Any ineffectiveness in the way your departments are equipped
to communicate and collaborate will ultimately reveal itself in
your bottom line, whether you're aware of it or not.
There's a reason why, according to an IBM study of global
CEOs, that 63 percent of CEOs surveyed cited "creating a
collaborative environment" as a top factor in drawing the
most out of their employees. There's a reason why UC is top-
of-mind for CTOs and CIOs at every organization across the
globe. Collaborative companies are more effective, are growing
faster and are creating more productive employees. And unified
communications and collaboration is the technology bridge that
can get you there.
It is very important to
weave collaboration
into the processes and
protocols that keep your
business running