Only about a fifth of UK organisations use some form of collaborative technology like video conferencing, and fewer than 10 per cent of employees use it ‘to full effect’, claims a new study by cloud MSP Timico.
Management have an unfortunate tendency to blame staff for the lack of adoption, with 43 per cent pointing to ‘stubbornness’ and 57 per cent believing that employees ‘don’t understand’ the new technology. Only 37 per cent thought that the failure was down to lack of support from management. This is in spite of the leaders themselves being uninformed about the technology, with 39 per cent unable to say whether their business is actually using collaborative tools.
No business was found to employ a mobile-only strategy, and 72 per cent were still using desktop phones, according to Timico, despite 23 per cent of organisations claiming that they saved between £5,000 and £100,000 a year through collaboration software like unified communications tools.
However, more than one in 10 companies were unaware of the potential for cost savings; and almost 60 per cent had no idea if there were any processes in place to monitor and evaluate savings.
Of those firms that did have evaluation processes, six per cent thought that savings were between £50,000 and £100,000; nine per cent between £20,000 and £50,000; and eight per cent from £5,000 to £20,000.
Only a small number of businesses were monitoring their actual cost savings, but the largest efficiencies were found in employee overheads: four per cent have downsized their premises due to flexible working , and three per cent have cut costs thanks to the use of VOIP phone systems.
Uptake of collaborative systems varied by demographic: Generation Z (post-Millenials) were the most willing (35 per cent) to use them, followed by Generation Y (Millenials, 32 per cent). Baby Boomers were far behind, at 12 per cent. In terms of department, Marketing, HR, Accounts/Finance, Production, Sales and Distribution were respectively the most likely candidates.
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Source: Computing