MSPs Can Accelerate Adoption of Unified Communications in the Enterprise

Unified communications (UC) hold an abundance of benefits and opportunities for businesses of all sizes. By having a cohesive and unified system in place for managing voice, written and multimedia communications, an organization presents a strong interface for dealing with customers and prospects.

Beyond sales and marketing initiatives, UC systems offer a variety of internal benefits for businesses. Employees may collaborate and communicate from anywhere and at any time through a variety of mechanisms, resulting in improved productivity and efficiency. And the growing popularity of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend can be supported and encouraged through a well managed UC solution.

According to a 2012 IDC (News - Alert) report, around 40 percent of enterprises have adopted UC and collaboration systems, with an additional 35 percent planning to deploy technologies within two years. One of the main barriers to adopting a UC plan is the technical challenge of planning, configuring, deploying and maintaining a UC solution. Particularly for small to medium-sized enterprises, this complexity has created a barrier in the evolution from legacy voice systems to next-generation UC solutions.

Managed service providers (MSPs) offer an ideal solution for businesses that wish to transition to UC but don't want to deal with the expense and hassle of migrating their equipment and software. An experienced MSP can help a company develop their UC plan from choosing the best equipment to deploying it in the most efficient manner possible, whether on premise, in the cloud or through a hybrid combination of both.

An MSP can deal with any migration challenges that may arise, as well as technical support, monitoring and maintenance issues that may overwhelm an already busy in-house IT staff. MSPs are also in an ideal position to manage updates and upgrades as well as any necessary backup and storage needs.

The role of MSPs in unified communications will be addressed this week at the upcoming ITEXPO Miami 2013 in Miami. The "Accelerating Managed Unified Communications (News - Alert) Adoption" conference session on Wednesday will offer strategies and tools for service providers seeking to accelerate the configuration and deployment of hosted UC. The session will also cover the benefits of MSPs providing UC services, in addition to how they may accommodate the latest UC trends like BYOD.

The session will be held from 9 to 9:45 a.m. and will feature a variety of speakers from companies like Cisco, BroadSoft, Yealink (News - Alert) and Alteva.