More Data from Frost & Sullivan's CXO Survey on UC&CMore Data from Frost & Sullivan's CXO Survey on UC&C

U.S. C-level executives say that audio conferencing, VoIP and instant messaging are most widely used in their organizations at all levels. Video conferencing is most used by senior management.

In the spring, Frost & Sullivan published a large study of how customer organizations are using unified communications and collaboration technology. One of the biggest findings, as detailed here, was that companies are not scaling back on their UC&C spending as much as one might think given the harsh economy--mainly because they've come to view enterprise communications as critical to doing business. But we found out lots of other good stuff from our 100-plus CXOs, too.While the largest proportion of U.S. C-level executives are aware of video conferencing, audio conferencing is actually used by the largest proportion, both within the organization (by employees) and personally by C-level execs. Video and web conferencing are the second most-used tools. Overall, CXOs admit that their colleagues and employees are more apt to use the various communications and collaboration tools than they do.

Use of the various communications and collaboration tools by employees within organizations appears to vary by industry. Displayed below are the highest utilization rates by industry:

* Energy/Utilities: Audio and web conferencing (tie for top utilization proportion)--91% use;

* Financial Services: Audio conferencing and VoIP (tie for top utilization proportion)--81% use;

* Government: Audio and video conferencing (tie for top utilization proportion)--93% use;

* Healthcare/Pharmaceutical: Audio, web and video conferencing (tie for top utilization proportion)--79% use;

* IT/Telecommunications: Audio conferencing--100% use.

Generally, U.S. C-level executives say that audio conferencing, VoIP and instant messaging are most widely used in their organizations at all levels. Video conferencing is most used by senior management. Conversely, nearly one-third indicate that telepresence has limited use.

Overall, CTOs personally use nearly all the communications and collaboration tools surveyed-more so than their other executive counterparts. Two exceptions are video conferencing and VoIP, which slightly more CEOs tend to personally use.

Among personal users of the various communications and collaboration tools, instant messaging is used daily by nearly everyone who uses it. Yet, while audio conferencing, video conferencing and web conferencing are most used by organizations overall, these tools are not used on a daily basis by a large proportion C-level executives; weekly personal use is more common.

Among the various communications and collaboration providers, the largest proportion of C-level executives say that their organization partners with AT&T, which is no surprise given the high levels of awareness associated with that company. Furthermore, AT&T is perceived as being the best communications and collaboration company at promoting the benefits of its tools. That said, all the large organizations surveyed use a broad mix of vendors and service providers for their communications needs.U.S. C-level executives say that audio conferencing, VoIP and instant messaging are most widely used in their organizations at all levels. Video conferencing is most used by senior management.