Unified Communications Critical to Agency Protection and Productivity

June 27, 2007: According to a new Cisco survey, US government agencies are increasingly embracing unified communications, considered it critical to disaster recovery and business continuity, not to mention an aid to collaborative processes.

Conducted by Market Connections in April 2007, the survey polled 201 US federal telecommunications decision makers from both civilian and defence agencies about their communications systems, business issues and challenges, and status of unified communications systems and action plans.

It found that more than three-quarters of respondents believe that the coordination of a mobile or remote workforce will be improved through unified communications. This means the integration of voice, video and data, delivered across a secure Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure.

Cisco says the survey indicates that state-of-the-art communications tools are being widely adopted across the federal government as agency executives strive to integrate secure, collaborative business processes and applications into their communications infrastructure.

Technology being deployed include wireless laptops, mobile devices and video conferencing systems, while nearly 50 percent of organisations surveyed now use instant messaging.

Cisco says more than 90 percent of respondents believe that unified communications are essential for disaster recovery and business continuity, however, when it comes to implementation, just one-quarter report fully operational systems, while a further 20 percent are in early stages of rollout.

“As we are seeing with dozens of agencies, unified communications is essential to the transformation occurring within the federal government,” said Bruce Klein, Cisco federal area vice president. “Agency employees are driving mission objectives from anywhere, and the trend should continue as they more clearly understand the benefits of unified communications, including increased overall efficiency, responsiveness and productivity, real-time communications, enhanced disaster recovery, location-independent employees, and the ability to do more with less by making use of existing resources.”

Cisco claims that while these devices are overwhelmingly viewed as a ‘blessing rather than a curse’, they are not a panacea. Indeed, more than a third of respondents surveyed reported that they have delayed projects or missed deadlines as a result of not being able to contact a co-worker.

The survey also found that:

• More than two-thirds of respondents plan to have the capabilities to provide real-time notification and identification of employees and instant messaging or live chats in their agencies within the next 18 to 24 months.
• Nearly one-third expect the development of wireless networking access to require the greatest amount of their organisations' resources.
• Nearly 30 percent cited funding as the biggest challenge to achieving communications goals.
• Data/communication security and system reliability are the two highest priorities cited.

“We urge decision-makers to put less emphasis on tactical features and focus on the bigger benefits of improving emergency response, linking field operations to headquarters, and real-time response to citizen needs and workforce productivity,” said Brent Byrnes, federal unified communications manager, Cisco.

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