Unified communications and collaboration (UCC) technology continues to transform our workplaces. Trends such as remote workers and portable devices have merged audio, video and IT into a single bucket that many corporations must tackle in the quest for productivity. 

TechTarget, in partnership with Bill Haskins of Wainhouse Research, identified five stages of transformation that businesses go through when deploying and expanding UCC technologies: 

Stage one is the siloed organization, where individuals within the organization may be bringing in their own collaboration tools, but the organization has no official collaboration strategy.

Stage two is the enhanced enterprise, where the enterprise has started the transition and collaboration tools emerge across the organization; however, the collaboration tools lack integration.

Stage three is the integrated enterprise, where organizations start to embrace more distributed teams and expand their employee recruiting efforts.

Stage four is the unified enterprise, where individuals have migrated to a single UCC platform for all their collaboration tools and the strategy around collaboration shifts from cost savings to productivity.

Stage five is the transformed enterprise, where organizations are transforming workflows with integrated communications and integrated technology.

As TechTarget reports, to get started an organization must first focus on the areas that will have the greatest impact, spend time creating a realistic deployment strategy, and ensure success on each step of the process. 

The complete article is available online.