Survey Reveals CIOs Support Audio Conferencing

  

  

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There are a number of different communications tools that are now available to businesses. While each of them may have their own distinct uses and advantages, one challenge is to enjoy all of the benefits when the technologies are operating on different platforms, by different providers and according to different standards.

To address and overcome these challenges, a number of companies have turned to Unified Communications or UC. Taking such an approach to internal technologies enables a company to streamline communications, drive collaboration and keep productivity focused on the activities of the core business.

Orange Business Services recently revealed the findings of a study that surveyed more than 600 CIOs from multinational corporations operating in a wide range of industries. Not only did these respondents have a favorable opinion of UC, they also overwhelmingly believe it can have a positive impact on business efficiency.

Audio Conferencing as a Key Tool in UC

One of the most productive elements of UC for a multinational company is the ability to conference with those team members who are separated by geography. The technology available today makes audio conferencing a key element to driving efficiency, teamwork and collaboration.

According to the CIO study findings, organizations throughout the world support at least seven different communication tools and applications used by employees. When audio conferencing is a part of that mix, employees are able to develop a communication strategy that is in line with key business productivity targets.

Current Communication Challenges

UC serves as a platform to drive productive communications; therefore it directly addresses a glaring challenge noted by 95 percent of CIO respondents. These corporate leaders agree that UC has enabled them to improve business productivity, but the slow speed of communication is offsetting the benefit when too many channels are necessary to communicate effectively.

Audio conferencing helps to overcome this challenge as it directly addresses employee, colleague, partner and customer response time. As 35 percent of CIOs believe uncoordinated colleague contact can ultimately lead to decreased profitability and unhappy customers, the demand for audio conferencing and the streamlined communications it can deliver is great.

While Unified Communications overall includes such activities as integrating mobile devices into the enterprise, implementing real-time identification through presence, unified messaging, instant messaging and audio conferencing, it is the focus on audio conferencing that helps to drive direct collaboration and increased time to market on key business initiatives.