Unified communications: The search for ROI through tomorrow’s business communication solutions

The traditional workplace is evolving; the way in which businesses communicate today is different than it was in the past and yet is likely to change again in the future. The current state of the economy and globalization has forced every organization to review its future business plans and cut costs everywhere including communications. Organizations are seeking out technology in hopes of finding new ways to reduce their bottom-line communication costs. Today, many enterprise business infrastructures are comprised of separate networks - voice, data, and mobile - yet most of the time these networks never interact. The ability to link business applications from various networks with communications proves to be valuable and is known as convergence. Convergence is defined as the combining of one or more elements into one. Unified Communications is a concept that looks to build on convergence, although it is not a new technology. Unified Communications is the term coined by the communications industry that signifies the comprehensive integration of various communication networks for reasons of increased revenue and reduced costs. Unified Communications will fundamentally transform the way in which people work - from decreased carrier costs to increased response times, the benefits of Unified Communications greatly outweigh the investment. This thesis will analyze the adoption of the Unified Communications paradigm by examining the Unified Communications solutions of tomorrow and prove that establishing a cohesive Unified Communications strategy will indisputably have a return on investment. In doing so, solutions from four Unified Communications vendors (Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, and RIM) will be examined to expose the potential benefits available to any enterprise business. The end result will show the rate of return for reducing costs and increasing revenue to yield a positive ROI for each vendors' UC solution.