about the research

Unified communications is an industry term that refers to the realtime redirection of a voice, text or e-mail message to the device closest to the intended recipient, at any given time. For example, voice calls to desk phones could be routed to the user's cellphone when required. E-mail intended for a desktop mailbox could be sent to the user's PDA or turned into speech for a phone message.

Although the term is used synonymously with "unified messaging," unified communications implies realtime delivery, whereas "unified messaging" can queue up messages from several sources for retrieval later.

In April 2007, Dimension Data commissioned primary research (conducted by research house Datamonitor) into the attitudes towards, adoption of and benefits perceived around unified communications.

Research Approach

The research covered two sample target groups, using separate questionnaires:

IT users (anyone using PC at work for more than 15 hours per week);
IT managers/decision makers (those with responsibility for IT purchasing decisions).

Research was conducted through:

Telephone interviews with IT Managers (20 questions, 390 interviews in total);
Online survey of IT Users (15 questions, 524 responses collected in total).

Other demographic considerations:

Industry: No vertical specifications or exclusions;
Company Size: No specific requirements, high-end SME and enterprise segments targeted;
Geographic coverage: 13 countries across North America, EMEA and APAC.

Respondent Breakdown

For more information in the results of the research and trends observed visit the Trends and Highlights and News and Opinion sections.