Unified Communications a key area of investment according to Interactive Intelligence Survey

Financial services sector leads a strong interest in investing in unified communications solutions

Slough, England, 04 June 2008 – 87% of businesses are looking to invest in Unified Communications solutions in the near future despite fears about spending due to the credit crunch. A survey carried out for Interactive Intelligence by independent specialists Vanson Bourne revealed that only 13% of those questioned said they were not considering moving towards a Unified Communications solution.

A strong message to come out of the survey was that individual technologies that make up Unified Communications solutions such as VoIP and Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) were driving this move.

VoIP was the most popular aspect of Unified Communications, with 80% of respondents citing it as a technology they were planning to invest in as part of their customer service solution. In addition 41% said they were interested in Interactive Voice Response, 31% in presence management and 30% in Session Initiated Protocol (SIP).

Richard Brown, VP Sales EMEA of Interactive Intelligence said, “This confirms our longheld view at Interactive Intelligence that individually, technologies such as VoIP and SIP can deliver huge benefits internally to companies by improving their operations, yet when brought together as a Unified Communications solution companies can experience both improvements in customer service and internal operations.”

Key Findings

•   Interest in moving toward a unified communications solution was particularly strong in the retail, distribution and transport sector, with 100% of those questioned indicating they were considering moving towards a Unified Communications solution.

•   50% of businesses said that the credit crunch would not affect their spending on Unified Communications solutions

•   58% of respondents hoped to see the greatest gain through internal return on investment, while a further 38% hoped to see both operational improvements and better service quality for their customers.

•   80% of respondents felt that offering Unified Communications rather than managing the call centre as a separate aspect of the business would benefit the enterprise as a whole.

Financial Results

Although all sectors felt that Unified Communications is of key importance, this was particularly true of the financial services sector. 100% of respondents in this sector said that they were looking to invest in Unified Communications in the near future. 76% of respondents in the financial sector thought that Unified Communications would benefit business more than treating the call centre as a separate entity.

Brown confirmed, “The financial services sector has always been at the forefront of investing in new communications technologies to continue to deliver better customer service to its clients. Therefore it is no surprise to us as Interactive Intelligence that as a sector they are particularly keen to invest in Unified Communications and is in fact borne out by our recent experience.”