With Unified Communications, You Can Still See a Competitive AdvantageWith Unified Communications, You Can Still See a Competitive Advantage

Companies will benefit not just from the technology, but from the fact that they have taken the time to assess their business processes and identify those points that are ripe for improvement.

As part of the Open Minds road show with Siemens Enterprise Communications, I've been stressing that with UC, we're in a place today where companies still have the opportunity for first-mover advantage. Since UC isn't a question of "if," but "when," those organizations that move now toward next-generation communications will get several years of competitive advantage over other companies in their industry that don't choose to deploy the new technology in a speedy fashion.

Consider that only 30 percent of all enterprise telephony lines are IP-enabled. Even fewer are running complete UC application suites; Frost & Sullivan’s latest UC research estimates that fewer than 2 million people are on completely integrated UC applications today. That's actually good news for executives who understand the value of UC, because it means that if you deploy the technology now, you will probably get a two-to-five year advantage from using the tools ahead of your competition.

This is especially true for communications-embedded business processes. The point of CEBP is to reduce human latency by leveraging advanced communications and presence information to speed business processes. Finding those points in a process that require decision making and/or action on the part of one or more people, then making it easy for them to get the information and communications tools they need to move forward, can shave hours, days or even weeks off the process itself. That's where so-called "soft-dollar" savings actually turn into real, hard-dollar revenue generation.

Today, companies have to identify those processes, determine where communications can move them forward more quickly, and then integrate the technology to enable CEBP—and they have to do it all themselves (with the help of vendor and channel partners), because UC technology doesn't offer out-of-the box CEBP capabilities.

That's hard work, and it involves both technological and business expertise. But because CEBP is still "custom," doing it today will deliver significant competitive advantage. Since no one else is doing it, companies that do will benefit not just from the technology, but from the fact that they have taken the time to assess their business processes and identify those points that are ripe for improvement.

The situation is similar to ERP and CRM. When those technologies first hit the market, early adopters that identified the best places to use them saw a significant first-mover advantage. Now, companies must use ERP and CRM just to be in the game. And since 80 percent of a company's needs are met out of the box, whether that box comes from SAP, salesforce.com or some other vendor, there's little room for companies to differentiate on the business side, let alone with its use of the technology.

That's where CEBP is headed. But for companies that act sooner rather than later, the benefits can be significant.