How does unified communications help?

It's easy to look at the functionality provided by unified communications [1] and think of the benefits, but is it possible to quantify those benefits, or at least look at them in a structured fashion?

It may be easier than you think to build a strong business case for unified communications as you draw functionality lines along the various value chains within your business model. If you chart the functionality with, for example, application silos along the X-axis and job descriptions along the Y-axis, it becomes apparent where in the organization the benefits will be most profoundly felt.

When you can see where present status, resource identification, immediate communications, and collaboration augmentation are possible, you can much more easily assign values to the functions--values that can then be weighed against implementation costs as a business case for unified communications is built.

For more:
- NoJitter has the entire article here [2]

Related:
Microsoft gets unified comms Report [3]
Unified communications coming to SMB Report [4]