SMB Cisco Solution for VoIP: Cisco IP Communications delivers concrete gains to SMBs (small and medium businesses). Learn more about
Cisco wireless, phone, and
network data VoIP solutions for your
small business or
medium business by reading this
Cisco solution VoIP case study.
from Cisco Systems Inc.
1.0 Executive Summary
IP Communications (IPC) has led to concrete productivity gains within small-to-medium size businesses (defined here as 300 to 999 employees)—benefits which can be categorized into three areas: organizational efficiency, end-user productivity, and IT staff productivity.
- Organizational Efficiency: Current adopters report both cost savings and revenue generation benefits from IPC. One example of cost savings comes from decreased reliance on outside vendors. Customers report they are better able to support their telephony systems in-house, as compared to when they had circuit-switched PBX systems. On the revenue generation front, many report improved call center volumes. And those enjoying this benefit report an impressive average increase of 30 inbound calls per agent per day (see Section 3.0). Any doubt about IPC’s organization-wide impact? Just ask those who have deployed it: most of these small-to-medium (SMB) survey participants (83%) stated that IPC provides their organizations with a competitive advantage over other organizations in their industries.
- End-user Productivity. In this category, the key themes are A) benefits from enabling workers to be more mobile (without sacrificing functionality) and B) benefits due to enhanced communications literacy (see Section 4.0). Perhaps most impressive here is that the IPC benefits apply to end-users so widely. For example, nearly half (48%) report that with IPC, all employees experience less telephone tag—saving an average of 4 hours per week per employee. Imagine a company where even just 100 employees experienced this gain—that alone would extrapolate out to 2,000 hours per year in productivity gains.
- IT Staff Productivity: Reducing time needed for normal support tasks—such as moves, adds, and changes—is a common benefit. And, less time providing help desk support for telephony is also key—as users are more able to operate independently (often saving four or more hours per week per IT worker). In fact, several specific efficiencies are gained from IPC that directly impact IT staff efficiency (see Section 5.0).
Based on a survey of 65 SMBs, this paper reports the ways in which real-world IPC adopters experience IPC benefits, including examples of specific time-saving and revenue-generating metrics.
1.1 Why Focus on Productivity?
As current IPC adopters know, employee productivity—whether for end-user or IT employees—is a component of making the business case for such investments. In fact, expected employee productivity gains are a common factor in making the decision to invest in IPC (as reported by the survey participants). Most of the participants (88%) stated that they sought employee productivity gains when planning IPC (see Exhibit 1). Overall, SMBs with IPC are even more intent on employee productivity gains than larger organizations, though it is an important benefit to both segments—88% of SMBs reported seeking this benefit when planning their IPC investment, compared to 71% of large enterprises (those with 1,000+ employees).
As this research shows, real-world IPC adopters make their business case justification based on a combination of cost savings—both direct (e.g., lower service expense) and indirect (e.g., less spares for standardized equipment), revenue generation, and employee productivity gains.
