Frost & Sullivan released a study commissioned on behalf of Cisco and Verizon.  The results of the study give statistical support to the link between collaboration and business performance.  For those organizations that are currently deploying Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) solutions, the results will provide you will encouragement and likely mirror what you are seeing first-hand.  If you are not deploying UC&C today, the research study points out an 80% likelihood you have plans to deploy within 2 to 3 years.  Regardless, the paper gives a good foundation of information for you to incorporate into your planning and project justification activities. 

The study does a good job of differentiating the varying levels of UC&C by dividing them into categories related to the extent to which UC&C is utilized. This segmentation of UC&C capabilities provides a good framework for the results and allows organizations to see the logical road map for the adoption of tools in their own organizations.

• Basic Collaboratorshave a basic UC&C deployment profile, with traditional and some IP-enabled communications and collaboration tools.
• Intermediate Collaboratorsdeploy IP-enabled communications and collaboration tools, as well as fixed-mobile converged capabilities to enable easy movement between a traditional physical office and a mobile office.
• Advanced Collaboratorshave the greatest deployment of UC&C technology, including advanced IP-enabled communication and collaboration tools and rich, cutting-edge UC&C tools, such as integrated soft phones and
  immersive video.

Unlike traditional studies that focus on Return on Investment (ROI), the Frost & Sullivan study turned its measurements to Return on Collaboration (ROC).  ROC, is designed to quantify the impact to collaboration itself.  the measurement captures the concept of "improvement" to the collaborative proess for specific departmental and functional areas of the business.  The study focused on the following areas with R&D and Sales seeing the highest returns:

• Human Resources
• R&D
• Sales
• Marketing
• Investor Relations
• Public Relations

The analysis of the data collected provides a list of real-world examples where the benefits are achieved in typical departments with typical workflow scenarios.  The study also gives good evidence of the differences between the impact of UC&C for small vs. large organizations. Meetings Around the World II, surveyed over 3,700 professionals globally. 

For the full report, please go here.

To see the background and supporting research material, go here.