Infrastructure, endpoints to drive UC tech budget boom in 2018

Headsets are hot as endpoint spending ramps up

Organizations are also looking to update their aging infrastructure to support digital transformation initiatives. The Nemertes report, based on a survey of more than 700 IT decision-makers, found organizations that successfully implemented digital transformation spent 72% more on unified communications and collaboration.

You can't compete in a digital economy when PBXs are 30 or 40 years old.

"If you've got people from all over the globe trying to get into a video conference to make key decisions and the network can't support it -- that does not bode well for IT," Gareiss said.

Organizations are also increasing spending on unified communications endpoints, particularly headsets, as more companies implement UC clients and employees increasingly use mobile devices. Three-quarters of organizations are using, planning to use or evaluating headsets, according to the report. Gareiss said IT budgets generally cover endpoint spending, but line-of-business budgets can overlap.

Line-of-business spending is intersecting with IT budgets as business units, such as sales or marketing, become more involved in UC decision-making, said IDC analyst Richard Costello.

"It's a combination of picking what apps the line of business wants for its department, but also kicking in some money to do it," he said.

UC tech-budget spending targets staffing

Organizations moving UC to the cloud plan to increase spending on staff to manage cloud providers and fill more strategic roles around UC. Organizations are also hiring IT staff with backgrounds outside of IT, such as marketing, for user adoption and awareness programs, Gareiss said.

During cloud migrations, the UC tech budget is examined more closely, and IT needs to ensure paid licenses are used. User adoption and awareness programs teach users how to use UC and collaboration apps and why they should use them, she said.

Improving the customer experience is another driver for organizations investing in UC. An organization's customers can range from internal customers, such as employees, to external ones, such as consumers.

Providing new collaboration apps is one way organizations are improving the customer experience. Nearly 20% of organizations are already using team collaboration apps, while nearly one-quarter is planning to use or evaluating team collaboration, the report found.

Team collaboration is a major talking point for UC vendors as end users look to improve these workflows, Costello said.

According to IDC, 41% of organizations currently use UC, while another 22% plan to deploy UC in the next year. The top drivers to deploy UC include cost savings, productivity increases and improved employee collaboration.

Contact centers are another focus of UC tech budgets for organizations with up-to-date infrastructure and basic UC apps rolled out. Gareiss said these organizations are looking to improve the user experience, expand the contact-center experience and integrate the contact center with employee communications.