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Unified Communications Survey

Summary Results

Market Connections, Inc.

June 2007

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In April 2007, 201 federal telecommunication decision-makers were interviewed about their communication systems, general business issues, current unified communication status and action plans, and vendor/partner perceptions.

Respondents were all employed by defense or civilian agencies and had some involvement in the implementation of IT and telecommunications solutions.

Background

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Overall Sample Population: Agency and Involvement

You are an employee of which of the following?

Please indicate the scope of your involvement of IT and telecommunications solutions for your agency or organization.

41%

83%

87%

95%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Final decision orapprove

Evaluate alternativesolutions

Direct involvement

Recommendsolutions

Involvement in IT/Telecommunications Solutions

Type of Federal AgencyCivilian or

Independent50%

Defense, Military, or Intelligence

50%

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Overall Sample Population: Job Function and Job Role

Primary Job Focus

Technical59%

Business operations

41%

Are you mainly involved in the daily business operations or the technical aspects of IT and telecommunication systems within your agency?

Which of the following best describes your role in your organization?

10%

16%

24%

25%

25%

0% 10% 20% 30%

Executivemanagement

Admin/purchasing

IT/MIS/IRM

Telecommunications

Program/projectmanagement

Job Role

5

Communication Systems

6

10%

21%

46%

73%

83%

84%

86%

96%

98%

99%

99%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Other

Soft phones

Instant messaging

Wireless laptops

Blackberries, PDAs,etc.

Video conferencing

Cell phones

Desk phones

Fax machines

Desktop computers

Email

Communication Devices or Applications Used

Communication Devices or Applications Used

Virtually all respondents used traditional “wired” technologies within their agencies, such as email, desktop computers, fax machines, and desk phones.

More than 80% of respondents’ agencies also use more mobile-oriented virtual technologies, such as cell phones, video conferencing, and mobile devices, such as Blackberries and PDAs.

Civilian agencies (53%) were significantly more likely to use instant messaging than their defense counterparts (40%).

Which of the following communication devices or applications does your agency currently use?

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Effects of Communication Devices and Applications

Communication Devices: Blessing or Curse in Daily Life?

Blessing, 84%

Curse, 11%Neither, 5%

The proliferation of communication devices, including mobile phones and Blackberries, and technologies like instant messaging has generally been a blessing in respondents’ daily lives. Nearly all of respondents said these devices helped communication in their organizations.

Has the proliferation of communication devices been a blessing or a curse to you in your daily life?

Have these devices helped or hindered communication with people in your organization?

Communication Devices: Helped or Hindered at Work?

Neither, 2%Hindered, 3%

Helped, 96%

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Frequency of Delays or Missed Deadlines

2%

4%

29%

54%

11%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Always

Often

Sometimes

Rarely

Never

Despite the proliferation of communication devices, more than one-third of respondents said that projects have still been delayed or deadlines have been missed in their agencies due to communication difficulties.

How often are projects delayed or deadlines missed as a result of not being able to contact a co-worker or decision-maker in your organization?

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Business Issues and Challenges

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Greatest Challenge to Achieving Communication Goals

2%

7%

8%

17%

20%

28%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Adhering to timelines

Communicating/collaborating withagency personnel

Updating currentsystems/keeping up

with technology

Educating personneland addressing

resistance

Security

Funding/budget

Funding was the most commonly cited challenge for respondents in achieving their agencies’ communication goals.

Security was listed by one-fifth of respondents as the most significant challenge.

(UNAIDED) What do you believe will be the ONE most significant challenge you will face in achieving your communications goals within your agency or organization?

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Priority of Business Issues

Those business issues with immediate impact on the agencies’ missions, including security, reliability, and productivity, were of greatest priority to respondents.

Factors with less immediate, but potentially long-term impact, including collaboration and coordinating a mobile or remote workforce were lower priorities overall.

Defense respondents considered data and communication security and disaster planning to be more of a priority than civilian respondents.

On a scale of one to five where one is an “extremely low priority” and five is an “extremely high priority”, how much of a priority are the following business issues for your agency over the next 24 months?

Priority of Business Issues

Total Priority

Extremely high/Somewhat high

System reliability 87% 54%/33%

Data and communication security 88% 61%/27%

Cost savings 72% 46%/26%

Disaster planning and COOP 77% 39%/38%

Increased productivity 78% 45%/33%

Reduction in delays and missed deadlines

72% 27%/45%

Increased collaboration 70% 38%/32%

Lo

w

P

rio

rity

of

Bu

sin

ess

Issu

es H

igh

Interfacing with other agencies 60% 30%/30%

Increased accessibility to employees 59% 29%/30%

Coordinating a mobile or remote workforce

49% 21%/28%

Business Issues

Key: Total Priority = Extremely high (5) + Somewhat high (4)

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Importance of Capabilities to Agency Mission

Real time notification and identification of employees was considered the most important capability in assisting respondents’ agencies to deliver on their missions.

In general, civilian respondents placed more importance on one-to-one communication capabilities, such as mobile devices and instant messaging than their defense counterparts.

Defense respondents focused on more one-to-many communication methods, such as video and audio conferencing.

On a scale of one to five where one is “not at all important” and five is “very important”, how important are the following capabilities in assisting your agency to deliver on its mission?

Importance of Capabilities to Agency Mission

CapabilitiesTotal

ImportanceVery/

Somewhat

Remote/mobile access to agency files 58% 21%/37%

Real time notification and identification of employees

62% 36%/26%

Video conferencing 51% 18%/33%

Wireless access and networking 54% 26%/28%

Mobile devices 53% 25%/28%

Audio conferencing 47% 15%/32%

Instant messaging/live chats 14% 7%/7%

Lo

w

Im

po

rta

nc

eH

igh

Key: Total Importance = Very important (5) + Somewhat important (4)

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Unified Communications Implementation Challenges

More than three-quarters of respondents considered perceptions and concerns over security to be challenging to unified communications implementation.

Significantly more defense respondents (82%) than civilian (74%) considered perceptions and concerns over security to be challenging.

On a scale of one to five, where one is “not at all challenging” and five is “very challenging”, how challenging are the following to the enterprise-wide implementation of an integrated system that combines IT and telecommunication infrastructure?

Challenge Level of Factors to Unified Communications Implementation

FactorsTotal

Challenge Level

Very/Somewhat

Compatibility with legacy systems 68% 31%/37%

Perceptions and concerns over security

78% 52%/26%

Lack of best practices and clear track record

51% 16%/35%

Complexity of product integration 62% 24%/38%

Reliability and trust in VoIP 57% 27%/30%

Untested technologies 44% 21%/23%

No sound business case 41% 12%/29%L

ow

C

hal

len

ge

Lev

el

Hig

h

No compelling need for new functionality

38% 11%/27%

Key: Total Challenge Level = Very challenging (5) + Somewhat challenging (4)

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Benefits of Unified Communications More than 90% of respondents said

that integrating IT and telecommunications systems would improve data and communication security, system reliability, productivity, and collaboration.

Please tell me to what extent you believe the following would be improved by integrating IT and telecommunications systems.

Improvement of Factors from IT and Telecommunications Systems Integrations

FactorsTotal

improvementSignificantly/Somewhat

System reliability 93% 65%/28%

Data and communication security 93% 69%/24%

Disaster planning and COOP 88% 56%/32%

Productivity 91% 63%/28%

Collaboration 91% 52%/39%

Accessibility to employees 86% 40%/46%

Cost savings 85% 55%/30%

Lo

w

I

mp

rove

men

t H

igh

Reduction in delays and missed

deadlines85% 38%/47%

Interfacing with other agencies 79% 48%/31%

Coordination of a mobile or remote workforce

76% 39%/37%

Key: Total Improvement = Significantly (4) + Somewhat (3)

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Current Status of Unified Communications

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Communication Capabilities Status

28%

28%

44%

26%

24%

50%

15%

14%

71%

14%

12%

75%

10%

10%

80%

9%

10%

81%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Real time notificationand identification of

employees

Instant messaging/livechats

Wireless networkingaccess

Remote/mobileaccess to agency files

Mobile devices

Audio conferencing

Do not currently use or plan to use Plan to use Currently use

While low in terms of current use, more than one-quarter of respondents plan to use real time notification and identification of employees and instant messaging/live chats.

Significantly more civilian respondents (82%) than defense (67%) currently use or plan to use instant messaging/live chats.

Which of the following communication capabilities do you currently use or plan to roll out over the next 18-24 months?

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Development and Roll-Out of New Communication Systems

12%

17%

29%

42%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Program/projectmanagement

C-level/executivemanagement

Telecommunications

IT

IT personnel were most likely to be the primary department involved in the development of new communication methods in their agency.

Telecommunications personnel had a higher level of involvement in civilian agencies (35%) than defense (22%).

Which department or personnel are most involved in the roll-out and development of new communication methods within your agency?

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Roll-Out of a Unified Communications System

24%

14%

9%

4%

23%

11%

10%

0% 10% 20% 30%

We have a fullyimplemented system

We are rolling out thesystem broadly

across the agency

We are conductingpilot tests with limited

groups

We have identified asolution and a vendor

We are investigatingand exploring options

We've talked about itbut haven't started

We have not evendiscussed it

More than 40% of respondents said they were in the early planning stages of unified communications system roll-out.

Nearly one-quarter of respondents said they had a fully implemented unified communications system.

More civilian respondents reported to be in the implementation phase (48%) than defense respondents (29%).

Which statement describes the current stage of your unified communications system roll-out?

Planning: 44%

Research: 13%

Implementation: 38%

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Unified Communications Planning and Implementation

15%

5%

10%

19%

8%

14%

27%

38%

33%

40%

49%

44%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Generally outsourcethe entire solutions

Primarily developsolution in-house

Use off-the-shelfsolutions

Collaborate with avendor or contractor

Defense Civilian Overall

Over 40% of respondents plan to collaborate with a vendor or contractor when addressing their communications planning and implementation.

Civilian respondents were significantly more likely to plan on collaborating with a vendor or use off-the-shelf solutions than defense respondents.

There was less of a consensus from defense respondents on how to address future communications planning and implementation.

Which of the following statements best describes how your agency plans to address future communications planning and implementation?

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Future Investments Needed

1%

6%

17%

22%

22%

32%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Instant messaging/live chats

Audio conferencing

Remote/ mobileaccess to agency files

Mobile devices

Real time notificationand identification of

employees

Wireless networkingaccess

Nearly one-third of respondents said that wireless networking access would require the greatest amount of their organization’s resources.

More than 20% said real time notification and identification of employees and mobile devices would require the most from their organizations.

Of those, which will require the greatest amount of your organization’s resources?

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Vendor Perceptions and Challenges

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Ways Vendors Can Help with Unified Communications

4%

4%

4%

8%

10%

15%

21%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

Avoiding over-selling

Assisting with productintegration

Providing variety ofproducts/ solutions

Providing qualitycustomer and technical

support

Having betterknowledge and

understanding of clientneeds

Being moreresponsive

Spreading knowledgeof products/solutions

More than 20% of respondents said that vendors could be most helpful in implementation by sharing their knowledge of products and solutions.

Technical personnel and civilian respondents were significantly more likely to request greater information dissemination and training about products and solutions than business operations personnel and defense respondents.

(UNAIDED) In what ways could vendors be most helpful in assisting your agency’s implementation of unified communications?

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Greatest Challenge in Working with Vendors

5%

7%

8%

11%

18%

26%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

Adhering to timelines

Cost

Aggressive sales staff

Systems issues: updating/integrating/ compatibility

Lack ofresponsiveness/communication

issues

Lack of knowledge andunderstanding of client

needs/procedures Lack of knowledge and understanding

of client needs was the most commonly cited challenge in working with communications solutions vendors.

(UNAIDED) In general, what ONE challenge do you most often face when working with outside communications solution vendors to accomplish your goals?

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Sources to Help Address Communications Needs

61%

64%

70%

70%

81%

93%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Manufacturers

Other agencies

Other outsideconsultants

Integrators

Software vendors

Internal resources

Other than internal resources, software vendors were the most commonly cited source for respondents’ communications needs.

Significantly more civilian respondents reported relying on software vendors and manufacturers than defense respondents.

Which of the following sources do you regularly rely on to address your agency’s communications needs?

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Partner With Cutting Edge Solutions

15%

15%

18%

21%

29%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Software vendors

Other outsideconsultants

Integrators

Manufacturers

Other agencies

Respondents most often considered other agencies as offering the most cutting edge communications solutions.

Approximately one-fifth of respondents said manufacturers had the most cutting edge communications solutions.

Which ONE type of partner do you perceive as offering the most cutting edge communications solutions?

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Leader in Unified Communications

4%

4%

5%

5%

5%

10%

63%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Avaya

IBM

Oracle

Siemens

Nortel

Microsoft

Cisco

The majority of respondents considered Cisco to be the primary leader in unified communications.

Significantly more IT personnel and civilian respondents cited Cisco as the leader in unified communications than business and defense respondents.

Business and defense respondents were more likely to name Microsoft than IT and civilian respondents.

Which of the following vendors would you consider the primary leader in unified communications?

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Contact Information

Market Connections, Inc

13135 Lee Jackson Memorial Hwy, Suite 380

Fairfax, VA 22033

703.378.2025

www.marketconnectionsinc.com