Help! We Need Unified Communications

Communications barriers and latencies can cost small and medium businesses up to 40 percent of their productive time, according to a Siemens-sponsored global study suggests.

On average, 70 percent of of small and medium business execitives recently surveyed say they spend 17.5 hours each week addressing the pain points caused by communications barriers and latencies, according to a global study sponsored by Siemens Enterprise Communications and conducted by SIS International Research.

Researchers at SIS International Research determined that the time spent per week dealing with communications issues was more than 50 percent higher in companies with more than 20 workers.

Companies of 100 employees could be losing more than $500,000 each year by not addressing their employees’ most painful communications issues, considering only "hard costs."

The top five pain points are inefficient coordination; waiting for information; unwanted communications; customer complaints; and barriers to communication.