Companies that deploy the most advanced IP-based collaboration technologies see more than twice the return on their investments and perform better than companies that don’t use the same tools, according to a study by Frost & Sullivan.
The study, which was sponsored by Verizon and Cisco, examined how professionals in businesses and government agencies get their work done by using advanced collaboration tools such as VoIP, instant messaging or meeting via high-definition video or Cisco’s TelePresence conferencing service.
The study also introduced what it claimed was the industry’s first quantitative model for a return on collaboration investment. The measurement, called the Return on Collaboration index, establishes a progressive impact of deploying advanced unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) technologies on business performance and measures improvements in areas such as research and development, human resources, sales, marketing, investor relations and public relations.
The study found that businesses and government agencies deploying increasingly more sophisticated collaboration tools – such as VoIP soft phones, immersive video and fixed mobile convergence – saw a corresponding improvement in business results relative to the amount invested. The overall average Return on Collaboration (ROC) score was 4.2 – meaning organizations received an average return of four times their investment in deploying collaboration technologies in terms of improvement across business-critical areas.
