Ovum Analysis --

Mobility in the core of UC

Research from Ovum looks at benefits and challenges

Ovum, the analyst and consulting company, believes that the UC benefit for mobile users will come from the greater communication flexibility and efficiency. Claudio Castelli, Senior Analyst based in Melbourne researches the benefits of mobile UC as well as challenges companies may face.

Users on the move will be able to complete time-sensitive tasks that involve several people, either inside or outside of an enterprise organization. Contacts will be accessible at anytime, anywhere, by the most efficient communication way. In addition, the next step in UC will also link critical business applications, offering more capability to mobile users.

“However, there is a long way to go and several challenges, both from the enterprises themselves and to mobile users to get the real unified mobile office”, advised Mr. Castelli.

“The future enterprise communications environment will be a complex mesh of services mapped on to different devices chosen according to the different user needs and degrees of mobility. Mobility generally pushes for a broader range of devices, increasing the challenge to keep maintenance and support simple. The migration from legacy telephony technology to an integrated UC environment including telephony, messaging, and business process applications will normally occur in several steps. Better support tools and a centralized management of all enterprise’s assets and devices will be a requirement.”

In addition, as users become more mobile, security assumes greater importance. “A remote and mobile workforce using mobile applications is at risk of losing confidential and critical company information”, Claudio added. In a unified communication environment, applications such as email, IM, customer relationship management, and field service automation can make data more vulnerable. With many applications and devices through different networks and environments the complexity of security is much higher.

As most of the benefits are difficult to measure, enterprises have to understand how UC will improve their process and affect business performance. “During this process it is important to recognize that companies have different cultures, business characteristics and levels of mobility. Some organizations are more social than others. To what extend the better communication and collaboration proposed by the UC will impact on them will depend on these differences”, said Claudio.

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About Ovum
Ovum is a global advisory and consulting firm. Its primary activity is providing value-added advisory services and consulting to retained and project clients. The company acts as a well-respected and trusted source of industry data, knowledge and expertise on the commercial impact of technology, regulatory and market changes. Ovum engages in continuous research and industry analysis to determine market dynamics in its specialist sectors.

Ovum has developed long-standing relationships with many of its corporate clients, which include major international blue-chip companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, BT, Cable & Wireless, Cisco Systems, Deutsche Telekom, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Telstra and Vodafone.
Ovum is part of the Datamonitor Group.


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