According to Annodata, organisations risk falling behind in the race for competitive advantage by continuing with legacy communications technology, rather than migrating their existing infrastructure to the cloud.
A recent report from Hexa Research suggests that Unified Communications (UC) is expected to grow significantly in Europe by 2020. With this in mind, Annodata are urging organisations to remain dynamic and competitive by discovering the benefits that UC can bring. The company also believes that, those that do not embrace the growing trend will suffer from a lack of competitive advantage and may suffer productivity losses.
Rod Tonna-Barthet, CEO of Annodata said, "UC enables organisations to stay lean, agile and responsive by optimising how they connect and collaborate across voice, video and data. This not only provides much better intercompany communication, but also delivers better customer service and engagement and ultimately improved competitive advantage. Despite these well documented benefits, many companies are still reluctant to make the transition at present.
"One of the major barriers to adoption is that organisations feel they have to sweat their historic investment in legacy technology. Undoubtedly, businesses should always aim to get the best performance from their existing estates and it may be tempting to hang on to old equipment for as long as possible. But this is a false economy. Legacy systems can be a drain on the IT department and maintaining these can be cumbersome and expensive, impairing an organisation's growth.
"CIOs are therefore faced with the daunting task of how and when to make the transition to cloud. Although it may seem more commercially viable for organisations to get the most out of their existing estates, this notion needs to be weighed against the fact that the longer organisations take to adopt UC, the further behind they will fall in the digital transformation race.
"Before a decision can be made, organisations must evaluate the efficiency of their legacy technology and they must know if the systems add value to the business or if it actually impairs the agility of the organisation. Fortunately, companies can look to the help of suppliers for appropriate guidance on this matter. By working with a trusted cloud provider who is already invested in the process, infrastructure and support network, companies can ensure that a simple yet essential process can be migrated to a future proofed and scalable platform, and provided back as true managed service from start to finish and often within existing opex budgets."