The document discusses collaboration trends based on a survey of 900 enterprises. Key findings include: - Nearly 40% of organizations don't have a defined collaboration strategy. However, lines of business play a key role in defining strategies for 60% of organizations. - Increasing sales is the second most important goal of collaboration strategies. However, few organizations measure success through return on investment. - Collaboration has improved productivity and decision-making but many organizations fail to leverage it to improve competitiveness. - Cloud-based collaboration is a strategic goal but few organizations currently rely on cloud services and adoption is expected to be gradual. - Lines of business increasingly purchase and support their own collaboration technologies independently of IT departments.

1. Collaboration trends, insights,
and strategies in the digital age
2016
Connected
Enterprise Report

2. Welcome to the 2016
Connected Enterprise Report!
We’re excited to bring you a report that highlights the trends,
strategies, and challenges facing collaboration decision
makers today. I’d like to thank the respondents in 900
enterprises — 580 IT departments and 320 line of business
(LoB) respondents — in 15 countries and 10 industries who’ve
made this report possible.
The Report, the first of its kind from Dimension Data, raises
some fascinating findings that challenge much of the hype
surrounding today’s enterprise market place.
As an industry veteran, I’ve seen the time-division multiplex
market (TDM) evolve into voice over IP (VoIP), which then added
video and data to become unified communications (UC).
So why do we now talk about collaboration?
The change we see today from UC to collaboration is really
the shift in focus from technology to human interaction. It’s
the evolution from the success of UC projects, as defined by
successful technical implementation, to collaboration projects, as
defined by user experiences and strategic business outcomes.
Right now, collaboration is one of the ‘hot topics’ of many
technology discussions — with analysts, or vendors, and
Silicon Valley start-ups all vying to define what the enterprise
collaboration market means. One thing is for sure, though: this
is a market is on the cusp of unprecedented change.
One of the most striking elements of the Report is the focus
on driving business return and, encouragingly, how the
collaboration prophecy is being fulfilled by many of our clients
through areas such as productivity gains and increased top-line
sales. This sharpened focus on tangible business return is a
strong vindication for Dimension Data.
For several years now, we’ve believed that the user should
be placed firmly at the centre of all collaboration strategies.
This focus on the experience of the collaboration application
and how it integrates with business process has led to our
own organic and acquisitive strategy. I’m encouraged that the
investments we’ve made are relevant to our clients’ strategic
enterprise goals.
The rise of the app and hybrid IT
What I didn’t expect, especially given the market hype
surrounding cloud, was the focus respondents placed on
applications rather than infrastructure. Without a doubt we’re
seeing a mature buyer community that views the application as
the truest enabler of business outcomes. The next-generation
infrastructure debate now pivots of how to build a flexible
platform that provides scale and mitigates risk. This may mean
cloud migration; it may not. Either way, the application will
determine future infrastructure strategies — not the other
way around.
I predict this will mean a move to hybrid delivery models for
different workloads in the collaboration stack over pure-play
cloud strategies. We already see this in the enterprise today, with
only a small portion of the 220 million enterprise phones in the
world hosted on cloud-based call-control.
The shape of the digital enterprise
The focus on the user, and as such on the application, will be at
the top of the transformational agenda in 2016 and the CIO will
face significant structural decisions in the coming months.
In the world of the digital enterprise where brand advocacy –
whether it be with internal or external stakeholders –
is king, technology and business leaders are grappling with
new challenges. Where does collaboration fit in the digital
enterprise? Does it continue to exist in the network and
communications tower, or does it move under the control of
new digital practices?
Of course the answer is different for every client, but our
senior executives have contributed excellent opinion pieces
in the Report — offering practical advice, insights, and
recommendations based on their experiences in engaging with
clients and delivering collaboration strategies at the coalface.
I’m confident that you’ll find the 2016 Connected Enterprise
Report as compelling and relevant as I do. I hope it will
accelerate your thinking, strategy, and ambition in this exciting,
ever-evolving market place.
Joe Manuele
Group Executive: Customer Experience and Collaboration
Foreword: the changing
collaboration landscape

3. 3
Contents
04Page
Introduction
14Page
Choosing the path that
leads to success
05Page
Key findings
17Page
Cloud migration: transform
on your terms
07Page
Methodology
20Page
UC underpins
collaboration
08Page
Collaboration must
accommodate a global
base of customers
22Page
Video is becoming
pervasive
10Page
Productivity, teamwork,
and profit
25Page
Enterprise social transforms
communications
29Page
Emerging from the
shadow
12Page
Collaboration is key to
workplace flexibility
27Page
We’re all in this
together
32Page
Conclusion

4. 4
Collaboration: turning the promises into reality
Greater agility. More productive employees.
Lower expenses. Better engagement with
customers and partners. Higher revenues.
Ask to see any CEO’s wish list and you’re bound to see these
factors – or some variation of them – at the top of it.
And ask how they’re achieving these goals, and many
business leaders will point to a digital transformation strategy
that has collaboration as a major component. Yet, ask most
organisations about collaboration or unified communications
(UC) today and many will cite costly proprietary silos of
technology that are difficult to use, and direct or indirect
business return is hard to tangibly gauge.
As a set of technologies, collaboration includes tools that
provide real-time voice and video communications, as well
as text-centric tools for messaging, file sharing, project
management, and social networking. Yet, collaboration isn’t
just about the technology. For organisations, it’s a strategy that
affects almost every part of the business – from developing
products and responding to competitors, to making decisions
and interacting with customers. For employees, collaboration
represents the promise of an easier, more productive way of
working with colleagues and business partners who might be
on the other side of the city, country, continent, or world.
Enterprises are turning to digital technology to transform
the way they do business, respond faster to market
opportunities and threats, and improve the experience of
their customers, employees, or partners. Collaboration is
fast becoming the key that unlocks many of the productivity,
agility, and business process improvements at the heart of
organisations’ digital transformation initiatives. It requires
changes to how employees work, how managers make
decisions, and how firmly entrenched business processes
can be modified and ultimately improved.
Some enterprises have done a better job than others at
leveraging collaboration technology to achieve their various
business goals. And different enterprises are at different stages
of implementation.
To help organisations gauge their progress in implementing
and benefiting from collaboration relative to others, Dimension
Data has created this Report. Based on responses from 900
participants in 15 countries and spanning 10 industry sectors,
this study provides insights into:
• enterprises’ strategic goals for collaboration
• how successful have enterprises been in benefiting
from collaboration
• how collaboration technology is selected
• what collaboration tools are in use
• to what degree cloud-based collaboration is a reality
or a strategic objective
• how the migration from UC to collaboration is
taking place
The report also provides considerable insight into the role
lines of business (LoBs) are playing in selecting, implementing,
and benefiting from collaboration. Whether business units,
regional divisions, functional departments, or other parts of the
company, LoBs often work closely with IT in determining what
collaboration technology will be rolled out to their employees
and how best to enhance teamwork and productivity within
their organisations. And in some cases, it’s LOBs – not IT – that
have the primary responsibility for implementing and supporting
the collaboration they’ve selected.
We hope that you find this report a helpful tool as you
unlock the many benefits that collaboration can bring to
your organisation.
For further information, including an interactive benchmarking
analyser tool of the 2016 Connected Enterprise Report results,
please see: www.ConnectedEnterpriseReport.com.
Introduction

5. 5
Key findings
Many enterprises have not
included collaboration in their
technology strategy.
Nearly 40% of organisations don’t have a defined
unified communication and collaboration strategy.
However, with the remaining 60% that do have a strategy,
line of business (LoB) managers and other non-IT executives
have a pivotal role in defining and executing their company’s
collaboration strategy – an astounding 89% of research
participants. An increasing number of LoBs – one in four
organisations – are also taking responsibility to pay for and
implement the solutions as well, without the express
consent of IT.
Enterprises rely on
collaboration to drive
sales and new revenue.
Increasing sales is the most important
collaboration strategy at 14% of enterprises,
second only to increased productivity, which is
most important to 19%.
Organisations are turning to collaboration to improve sales,
with 14% – the second highest number of respondents – saying
improving sales is the top goal of their collaboration strategy.
And one in three organisations say increased sales is among the
top three most important ways of measuring the success of their
collaboration projects.
Few enterprises view return on
investment as the main way they
measure the success of their use
of collaboration technology.
Only 4% use return on investment (ROI) as the
primary method of determining whether their
deployment of new collaboration technologies has
been a success.
A demonstrable ROI is the least relied on method that
organisations use to gauge the success of their use of
collaboration technology. Only 4% of organisations measure
success by calculating ROI, whereas employee productivity
data, user uptake data, and cost savings data are much more
common ways to justify their investments in collaboration
technology. This is problematic because ROI is an important way
of justifying any kind of technology investment.

6. 6
A quarter of organisations focus more on the
successful implementation of collaboration
technology, rather than how it’s used and adopted.
One out of every four IT departments measure the success of
their collaboration projects by how well they’ve implemented
the technology. This is a rather dangerous mindset, since
the success of collaboration projects hinges as much on
what comes after the technology is implemented as before.
If employees don’t use the collaboration tool – and use
them effectively – then organisations will neither benefit
from the technology nor achieve a ROI on it. Related to this,
17% of organisations haven’t implemented collaboration
training programmes, and 16% haven’t changed travel
policies to encourage the use of videoconferencing and other
collaboration tools. This is a recipe for disaster for many
organisations looking to derive maximum value of their use of
collaboration technology.
81% of enterprises say collaboration has enhanced
their ability to engage with customers and improve
customer service.
Collaboration technology has a wide range of uses in customer
engagement scenarios. Rich communications leveraging
technology lets businesses interact with clients in the manner
and on the device they prefer. And it improves how contact
agents work together and with others in the enterprise to
resolve customer issues. However, very few – only 2% of
enterprises – identify customer service improvements as the
topmost goal of the collaboration strategy. The implication is
that better customer experience is an accidental rather than
pre-planned outcome for many organisations implementing
collaboration technology.
88% of enterprises say collaboration has improved
the decision-making process in their organisations.
Not enough focus on
what happens after the
technology is deployed.
Collaboration improves
enterprises’ ability to interact
with customers.
Collaboration accelerates decision-
making, but many organisations
fail to leverage it to improve their
competitive position.
Nearly one in three IT departments see moving UCC
to the cloud as the most important technology trend
affecting their collaboration strategy.
However, organisations are taking a very cautious approach
to the cloud, with only 20–25% currently relying on hosted
collaboration services. This isn’t expected to grow significantly
in the next 12 months as enterprises carefully and deliberately
execute on their cloud strategies.
Cloud-based collaboration
is a strategic goal for many
enterprises, but it will take
some time to achieve.
Almost 60% of lines of business (LoBs) have their
own budget – independent of IT – to purchase
collaboration technology. And 57% have staff
within the department to both implement and
support collaboration technology.
Selecting, purchasing, and implementing collaboration
technology are no longer just the IT department’s
responsibilities. At many enterprises, IT needs to work hand-
in-hand with LoBs that not only understand what they seek to
gain from collaboration but are also capable of purchasing and
supporting the technology.
Enterprises have also become very adept at leveraging
collaboration technology to make their employees more
productive, with 84% saying collaboration has improved the
productivity of individual employees. But many struggle to
leverage collaboration to compete in their respective industries,
with 20% of organisations saying their use of collaboration
technology has failed to improve their competitive positioning.
LoBs have a prominent role in
deciding which collaboration
technology to use.

7. 7
To construct the 2016 Connected Enterprise
Report, Dimension Data surveyed 580 IT
managers, IT directors, CIOs, and others
responsible for information systems at their
organisations, as well as 320 line of business
(LoB) managers.
They work at organisations with at least 1,000 employees in
a range of industries, including:
• financial services
• manufacturing
• fast-moving consumer
goods
• pharmaceutical
• energy
• media
• professional services
• education
• government
• healthcare
• Australia
• Benelux (Belgium,
Luxembourg, Netherlands)
• Brazil
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong
• India
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Singapore
• South Africa
• Spain
• UK
• US
To get a global perspective, we included participants at
organisations based in 15 different countries, namely:
The goal of this study was to paint a complete picture of
how enterprises are using various types of collaboration
technology (including real-time communications, conferencing,
collaborative workspace solutions) to enhance communications
and teamwork among employees, customers, and trusted
partners. To this end, we asked IT and LoB leaders detailed
questions about:
• corporate strategy as it pertains to improving
communications and collaboration within the company
• which collaboration tools are used the most widely
• how employees most benefit from collaboration
• how collaboration technology is purchased and deployed
now and how this will change in the future
• how collaboration technology is integrated with other
business applications
• how collaboration technology improves business processes
• how shadow IT and the consumerisation of IT is affecting
the collaboration tools in use within the company
• how the success of collaboration technology is measured
Methodology

8. 8
International partnerships more
common than international
operations
Because collaboration technology is the medium that
interconnects concentrated and geographically distributed
stakeholders, we asked a number of questions about where
respondents’ offices, employees, business partners, and
customers are located. Unsurprisingly, some organisations
operated in a single country, while others had operations that
span a particular region or the globe.
More interesting, it’s more common that an organisation’s
customers and partners are geographically dispersed than
it is for its own employees to be located around the world.
Specifically, 62% of organisations said their employees are
located in multiple countries, whether within a certain region,
such as Asia or western Europe, or around the world. But 72%
said the same about their customers and business partners.
This is directly relevant to how collaboration technology is
deployed and utilised. All too often, enterprises emphasise
internal communications and teamwork among co-workers at
the expense of providing employees with the tools they need
to have rich interactions with partners, customers, and others
outside the organisation.
Because collaboration
technology is the medium that
interconnects concentrated
and geographically distributed
stakeholders, we asked a
number of questions about
where respondents’ offices,
employees, business partners,
and customers are located.
Collaboration must
accommodate a global
base of customers
and partners

9. 9
Collaboration must include
outsiders
A base of customers and set of partners that are
geographically distributed to a much greater degree than an
organisation’s own employees can pose a significant challenge
to business use of collaboration technology. Improving the
productivity of employees within the company tends to
be a high priority for enterprises deploying collaboration
technology. In fact, the largest number of enterprises surveyed
(19%) said productivity enhancement is the most important
goal of their collaboration strategy. Much fewer (6%) ranked
improving teamwork with customers and partners as highly.
This is reflected in the rather insular nature of collaboration
solutions and services deployed within an organisation. A
corporate instant messaging (IM) application might provide
a secure communications channel between employees, but
federating it with another company’s instant messaging (IM)
platform can, at best, be difficult and, at worst, impossible.
Similarly, enterprise social software and videoconferencing
systems might do a good job of enhancing communications
across an international workforce at an organisation. But in
many cases, they’re not optimised for connecting employees
with customers and partners.
Figure 1: Enterprises support a very highly distributed set of customers and partners
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
All in a single country Mainly in a single country, but
there are a few elsewhere
Many in a single region Many around the world
38%
20%
28%
34%
21%
17%
24%
18%
Where employees are located Where customers and business partners are located
Enterprises need to make
sure that, when it comes to
collaboration, they’re providing
employees with the tools they
need to get their jobs done
better and consistently.
Enterprises need to make sure that, when it comes to
collaboration, they’re providing employees with the tools
they need to get their jobs done better and consistently. For
organisations that have a large number of geographically
dispersed customers and partners, this means providing your
employees with messaging, conferencing, and other tools.
These allow them to interact with people outside the company
in an equally rich and effective way as when they use those
tools to interact with colleagues within the company.

10. 10
Top objectives for the
collaborative enterprise
Enterprises have long understood increased productivity
of individual employees and improved teamwork among
colleagues as one of the main objectives and top benefits of
collaboration. After all, collaboration technology is specifically
designed to streamline communications, making it easy to
interact with one’s co-workers from any place, over any device,
and from any application. When used effectively, collaboration
breaks down barriers – both geographical and organisational –
letting people share knowledge with one another and rapidly
turn that knowledge into action.
Collaboration can also improve customer service. Contact
centres leverage collaboration tools to facilitate better
communication and teamwork among customer service agents,
as well as between agents and experts elsewhere within the
organisation. The goal is to respond to customer requirements
quicker and more efficiently.
Enterprises have also long relied on collaboration to reduce
operational expenses. This typically takes the form of a reduced
need for air travel.
Contact centres leverage
collaboration tools to facilitate
better communication and
teamwork among customer
service agents, as well as between
agents and experts elsewhere
within the organisation.
The formula is simple: fewer plane tickets plus fewer hotel bills
equal lower expense reports. Videoconferencing is typically the
chief enabler, allowing face-to-face meetings without the need
to travel anywhere. And the reduced time en route to meetings
means more time can be spent in the office getting work done.
So reduced travel not only results in reduced expenses, but can
also translate into increased productivity.
It’s little surprise then that enterprises most often cite
productivity improvements as their top objective when it
comes to collaboration, with faster decision-making and lower
expenses also very high on the minds of enterprises when it
comes to how they hope to benefit from collaboration.
Productivity,
teamwork,
and profit

11. 11
Leveraging collaboration to
improve sales
A surprising number of enterprises say that they’re turning to
collaboration technology to increase sales, improve revenues,
or otherwise make top and bottom line improvements. Of all
enterprises, 14% identified increased sales as the topmost
goal of their collaboration strategy, making it second only to
improving productivity as the single most important objective
for our respondents.
Sales improvement is likewise a key indicator that a company
is successfully using collaboration technology, with 31% of
organisations saying it’s among the top ways they measure
success. By comparison, data that demonstrates an increase in
employee productivity is also an important success indicator at
many organisations, though only 4% or organisations say they
rely on a demonstrable ROI as the most important indicator of
the success of their use of collaboration technology.
For a few types of organisations, there’s a direct correlation
between their use of collaboration technology and higher
revenue. A university’s adept use of collaboration technology
can result in increased enrolment and, as a result, tuition
revenue. And hospitals with sophisticated telemedicine
programmes have successfully used videoconferencing to
increase revenue generated by both consultative services and
patient transfers.
But for most businesses, collaboration will take a more
circuitous path toward increasing sales and improving
revenues. One company’s ability to increase decision-making
via collaboration improvements will result in faster product
development which will, in turn, improve sales.
Another company using collaboration to improve customer
service will benefit from better customer satisfaction and less
churn which will, in turn, improve revenue.
This indirect correlation between improved collaboration and
improved sales undoubtedly contributes to many enterprises
finding it difficult to turn their investments in collaboration
technology into concrete sales improvements. Nearly one
out of five (17%) say they’ve failed to improve sales using
collaboration technology. The same number of enterprises
(18%) say that their use of collaboration technology hasn’t
improved sales-related business processes.
Interestingly, healthcare organisations seem to be struggling
with translating improved collaboration into improved sales.
Only 40% say they have succeeded in doing so, whereas on
average 70% of organisations in other industries report some
success in improving sales through their use of collaboration
technology. And 30% of healthcare organisations say they
have failed at this, compared with an average of 17% at
other kinds of organisations. As noted above, healthcare
institutions have a clear path toward financially benefitting from
advanced communications and collaboration via telemedicine
programmes that have been in place for years. The fact that
so few organisations in the healthcare field are having success
indicates how difficult it can be to turn improved collaboration
into tangible financial improvements.
Enterprises seeking to drive sales or revenue improvements
through collaboration will want to carefully chart how they’ll
accomplish this. It isn’t necessarily straightforward, so CIOs and
others in charge of their company’s collaboration strategy need
to carefully map how improvements in teamwork and enhanced
customer communications will translate into increased revenue.
20%
18%
16%
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
Improveindividual
employeeproductivity
Makebusinessprocesses
moreefficient
Leveragecloudtomigraterisk
Improvesales/revenue
Improveteamworkwith
peopleoutsidethecompany
Improvecustomerservice
Acceleratedecision-making
Improvemobile
collaborationexperience
Improveworkplaceflexibility
/supportremote
Reducebusinessexpenses
Facilitatetransformational
objectives
Reducecarbonfootprint
Improveteamwork
amongemployees
Expandoperations
Gaincompetitiveadvantage
Single most important objective
for collaboration
Figure 2: Most enterprises see productivity gains as the top goal when deploying collaboration technology

12. 12
Tying in remote workers with
conferencing
Though we still commonly say ‘I’m at work’ or ‘I’m on my way
to work,’ it’s understood that for many employees work is
not a location. Rather, work is an activity that can take place
in a variety of settings: an office building, a home office, a
customer’s site, a coffee shop, or other public places.
Generally speaking, three-quarters of enterprises say the average
employee works away from the office at least sometimes, with a
quarter saying the average employee works remotely all or most
of the time. This, of course, varies by job function, with sales and
marketing personnel typically working away from the office more
than executives, and executives working off-site more often than
personnel in accounting and legal.
For example:
• Of the average company’s sales reps, marketing staff,
and executives, 82–85% work away from their office at
least some of the time.
• Working away from their company’s offices all the time
are 11% of IT staff and 10% of marketing personnel.
• Working away from the office most or all of the time
are 15% of employees in the legal department, 18% of
those in procurement, and 12% of RD personnel.
Figure 3: A majority of employees work remotely
at least some of the time
Never
Always
Most of the time
Sometimes
How often the average employee
works away from the office
27%
48%
20%
5%
Collaboration is
key to workplace
flexibility

13. 13
Collaboration has long been
a key enabler for supporting
remote and mobile workers
Audio and Web conferencing is the most widely utilised
communications tool, enabling employees to collaborate
with remote colleagues, with between a quarter and one-third
of enterprises making them available to all employees. Their
popularity is due to audio and Web conferencing being based on
a mature technology that’s stable, relatively easy to use, and has
been used long enough so that most employees are comfortable
with it. Often delivered as cloud-based services, they’re also
easy for enterprises to deploy and, thanks to fierce competition
among providers, comparatively inexpensive to adopt.
Videoconferencing, while it may not completely replace the
need for face-to-face meetings, is another invaluable way
enterprises are interconnecting geographically. It helps remote
workers feel like they are more present to colleagues working
at headquarters. Because it’s based on newer technology,
desktop videoconferencing isn’t as widely deployed as audio
and Web conferencing. Only 16% of lines of business (LoBs)
say everyone in their department regularly uses meeting room
videoconferencing systems for individual use, compared with
24% and 27% of enterprises that said the same about Web
and audio conferencing, respectively. Yet 53% of enterprises say
that at least half of their employees regularly use desktop video
for their work – evidence that it’s becoming more widely utilised
across organisations.
IT underestimates the extent
to which employees work
remotely
Because enterprises have been using conferencing and other
types of collaboration tools for so long, they’ve become
particularly successful at using them to support remote and
mobile users. Nearly eight out of ten say that collaboration has
resulted in improving the work experience for remote workers
(79%) and employees using mobile devices (76%).
However, the ability of collaboration technology to improve
the work experience of remote and mobile users is taken for
granted at many enterprises. Very few organisations count
improved support for remote and mobile workers among
the most important objectives of their collaboration strategy.
And few identify improved support for mobile workers as
the topmost trend affecting their collaboration strategy.
This is perhaps because leveraging collaboration to create
a more flexible workforce was a priority in previous years,
and something that many enterprises feel they have either
addressed or are in the process of addressing.
IT departments traditionally support employees and provide
them with the tools they need to communicate and collaborate.
But it’s very likely that employees work away from the office
much more often than the IT departments think:
• LoBs and IT agree that relatively few employees (5%)
work away from the office all of the time, and that 20% of
employees work away from the office on most days.
This makes sense, since individuals in sales, marketing, field
operations, and other roles can be highly mobile.
• IT estimates further that more than a third of their
employees (35%) never work away from the office, with
workers in legal, accounting, and HR particularly bound
to their desks. By comparison, less than half as many
LoB managers (14%) indicated that employees in their
department never work away from their office.
Assuming that LoBs can more accurately identify the number
and habits of remote workers within their department
than IT can estimate for various departments company-
wide, enterprises tend to have a surprisingly large number
of employees who work remotely at least periodically. This
can have a direct and potentially negative effect on the
collaboration technologies deployed within a company. An
IT department will purchase and deploy a very different set
of collaboration tools for employees working mainly from
corporate offices than employees who regularly work from
partner sites, customer locations, home offices, and other
remote locations.
Always Most of the
time
Sometimes Never
Figure 4: IT overestimates how many employees never
work away from the office
38%
20%
28%
34%
21%
17%
24%
18%
LoBIT
How often the average employee
works away from the office

14. 14
Achieving some goals are fairly
straightforward
Enterprise adoption of collaboration technology starts with a
strategy that sets out clear goals. As we’ve seen, increasing
productivity, accelerating decision-making, and improving sales
are among the most popular. Others include reducing the
company’s carbon footprint, mitigating risk through the use of
cloud technologies, and expanding operations.
The enterprise then purchases (or in some cases, develops) the
types of solutions needed to execute on the strategy, and makes
them available to employees. But all is for naught if employees
don’t embrace the new technology, effectively integrating them
into their work processes. It they do, an enterprise stands a
good chance of having succeeded in leveraging collaboration to
achieve the goals of their strategy.
When it comes to leveraging collaboration to improve
their business, enterprises are reporting a remarkable degree
of success:
• Of all enterprises, 72% say their use of collaboration
technology has met their expectations to accelerate
decision-making, with another 13% saying it’s
exceeded expectations.
• Some 59% say collaboration has met expectations for
making business processes more efficient, with another
20% saying it’s exceeded them.
• Some 66% say collaboration has met expectations for
improving customer service, with another 20% saying it’s
exceeded them.
• Many IT departments are particularly happy with
collaboration’s ability to help achieve their company’s
transformational objectives, with 19% saying it has
exceeded their expectations. (LoBs aren’t as sure, with only
half as many saying the same.) Meanwhile, LoBs are very
bullish on collaboration’s ability to rein in business
expenses, with 21% saying it’s exceeded expectations for
this. (Half as many IT departments agree.)
As many as one out of
every four IT departments
measure the success of their
collaboration projects by how
well they’ve implemented the
technology.
Choosing the
path that leads
to success

15. 15
Figure 5: Satisfaction not guaranteed, but achievable
Enterprises satisfied that collaboration technology has met their expectations
Reduce carbon footprint
Reduce business expenses
17% 57% 13%
13%15% 60%
Make business processes more efficient
Leverage cloud to mitigate risk
16%20% 59%
11%14% 59%
Improve workplace flexibility / support remote workers
Improve teamwork with people outside the company 11%14% 67%
12%21% 61%
Improve teamwork among employees
Improve sales/revenue
9%22% 64%
11% 62% 13%
Improve individual employee productivity
Improve customer service
16% 68% 11%
20% 66% 10%
Improve mobile collaboration experience
Gain competitive advantage
22% 56% 17%
12% 53% 20%
Facilitate transformational objectives
Expand operations
16% 58% 18%
13% 60% 16%
Accelerate decision-making 13% 72% 9%
Exceeded expectations Met expectations Failed to meet expectations
Measuring the success of
collaboration projects
Such a degree of success in deriving demonstrable benefits
from collaboration is testament to the careful planning that
enterprises put into deploying it, as well as ensuring that
employees understand how best to use it after it’s been made
available to them.
There are many ways that enterprises ensure their employees
benefit from collaboration, but the most effective include:
• creating a corporate culture that encourages and
fosters collaboration among employees –39% say this
is very effective
• using internal communications to promote the use of
collaboration technology – 51% say this is very effective
• training programmes that enhance employees’
collaboration skills – 46% say this is very effective
Some of the less effective include:
• tasking a ‘change manager’ to ensure employees are
using collaboration technology and using it effectively –
14% say this is not effective
• seeking executive sponsorship to encourage others in
the company to use new, potentially unfamiliar collaboration
technology – 13% say this is not effective
• changing travel policies so employees must use
collaboration technology in lieu of business trips – 12%
say this is not effective
IT departments responsible for deploying collaboration
technology need to make sure they fully appreciate the
importance of these activities, all of which take place after the
technology is implemented. When asked how they measure
the successful deployment of collaboration technology, IT
departments pointed to cost savings data and demonstrably
faster time to market as two of their top three metrics.
But the most popular metric by far is a successful technical
implementation. As many as one out of every four IT
departments measure the success of their collaboration projects
by how well they’ve implemented the technology. It’s a rather
dangerous mindset. Any IT project, of course, needs to have the
technology that underpins it correctly implemented. If it’s not,
the solution will fail until all technical issues are resolved.

16. 16
Other goals are more
challenging
However, enterprises have found it more difficult to achieve
some of the improvements that their use of collaboration
technology was intended to provide. Leveraging collaboration
to gain an advantage over competitors is particularly
troublesome. A fifth of enterprises say they’ve failed at it.
Making business processes more efficient and helping to
facilitate the company’s transformational objectives are other
difficulties, with similarly high failure rates.
There are many reasons why enterprises struggle with
some of the objectives. Enhancing business processes with
communications technology is notoriously difficult. Sometimes
technical issues are at the root of the problem, with the
systems and software that underpin the business processes
not easily integrated with communications and collaboration
solutions. At other times the problem is more financial, with
complex custom integration projects making deployment costs
unreasonably high. And cultural and workforce issues can
add complications. If the company doesn’t have a corporate
culture that promotes teamwork, or if employees are resistant
to cooperating with one another, even the most technically
sophisticated collaboration solution will fail to deliver the
improvements that an enterprise seeks.
But the success of collaboration projects hinges on what
comes after the technology is implemented. End users need
to be trained on how to use the technology and integrate it
into their workflow. Often times they need to be repeatedly
reminded that it even exists. Collaboration is not a ‘build it and
they will come’ scenario where IT provides the solution and
everyone in the company flocks to it. Awareness of it needs to
be fostered for weeks or months after implementation. Best
practices need to be gathered and shared. Analytics need to
provide clear evidence that collaboration technology is being
used and used well. Executive sponsors and change managers
need to help drive new collaboration practices in organisations
where they didn’t previously exist. In general, organisations
need to put more consideration not just into the completion of
the project at a technology deployment level, but also into the
organisation’s change process.
Executive sponsors and change managers need to help drive
new collaboration practices in organisations where they didn’t
previously exist. In general, organisations need to put more
consideration not just into the completion of the project at a
technology deployment level, but also into the organisation’s
change process.

17. 17
Collaboration part of larger
cloud initiatives
The cloud has become essential to enterprises executing on
a wide range of digital transformation initiatives. Whether
internally managed servers running in a company-controlled
data centre or externally provided services that require little
or no capital investment, cloud technology is the underlying
platform that lets enterprises deploy applications efficiently,
affordably, and at scale.
As they embrace cloud technologies to accelerate the
provisioning of applications, increase their availability, and
reduce costs, enterprises have their sights squarely set on
cloud when it comes to their collaboration applications. In fact,
migrating collaboration applications to the cloud has become
fundamental to the ability of many enterprises in making
collaboration technology available to the largest number of end
users in the most cost-effective manner.
It’s little wonder that the top technology trends affecting most
enterprise collaboration strategies are cloud related:
• Adopting collaboration applications as hosted
services, rather than deployed on-premise – 27% of IT
departments see this as the most important trend affecting
their collaboration strategy.
• Adopting collaboration applications via a subscription
model, rather than more traditional licensing – 14% of
IT departments see this as the most important trend.
• Moving collaboration applications to private
data centres, rather than running them on dedicated
hardware – 10% of IT departments see this as the most
important trend.
The cloud has become essential
to enterprises executing
on a wide range of digital
transformation initiatives.
Cloud migration:
transform on
your terms

18. 18
Many reasons to move
collaboration to the cloud
There’s no one reason enterprises are moving collaboration to
the cloud. Rather, a diverse set of strategic, operational, and
financial motivations underpin enterprise collaboration cloud
initiatives. The most important of these are:
• An organisation-wide cloud strategy is in place, so that’s
the direction collaboration applications will also take.
• Cloud potentially costs less (at least initially), and when
adopted as a hosted service, it can become an operational
rather than capital expense.
• Applications in the cloud are easier to administer
and keep up to date, resulting in a less onerous
management process.
For most enterprises, however, cloud-based collaboration is
a future objective , rather than the current state of affairs.
On average 75% of collaboration applications are still deployed
on-premise, either managed by an internal IT department or
with a third-party provider managing them on the behalf of
the company.
This makes sense, since enterprises have traditionally purchased
collaboration technology – whether it’s videoconferencing
equipment, PBXs, instant messaging (IM) apps, or enterprise
social software – as a capital investment, with the software
and systems deployed on-premise and managed via internal
IT resources. For many enterprises, this is how their IT and
procurement departments are used to purchasing collaboration
technology, and changing them takes time.
Many enterprises also have made very large investments in
premise-based technology, and they are reticent to move to a
cloud-based model until those assets have become obsolete. As
a result, it will be a process of several years for many enterprises
to completely migrate collaboration technology to the cloud.
Most popular collaboration strategy trends
Figure 6: Cloud: The future of collaboration
Break down silos of collaboration
technology 3%
Move collaboration to the cloud
via hosted services 27%
Adopt collaboration
as-as-service 14%
Move collaboration to the cloud via
private data centers 10%
Embrace consumerisation of IT
for collaboration apps 9%
Embrace enterprise
social 8%
Make video communication
pervasive 8%
Reduce reliance
on email 8%
Accommodate
BYOD 8%
Accommodate increased use of
mobile devices 5%

19. 19
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
26%
46%
28%
1%
51%
22%
23%
3%
Audioconferencing
Webconferencing
25%
59%
15%
1%
20%
57%
20%
3%
26%
48%
21%
5%
18%
58%
19%
4%
22%
48%
27%
3%
17%
61%
19%
3%
22%
46%
29%
2%
19%
56%
23%
2%
Document/
filesharing
Enterprisesocial
Enterprisevoice
Instantmessaging(IM)
Officeproductivity
Videoconferencingfor
dedicatedvideorooms
Videoconferencing
forindividualuse
Videoconferencing
formultipurpose
conferencerooms
How enterprises deploy collaboration technology
Figure 7: For many enterprises cloud-based collaboration is more of an objective than a reality
Hosted by third party providing multi-tenant service
Hosted by third party providing dedicated service
Premise-based, third party managed
Premise-based, internally managed
That said, many enterprises are well on their way to migrating
at least some of their collaboration applications to the cloud.
• Desktop video and instant messaging (IM) are
particularly popular as cloud-based apps, with 31% of
enterprises saying this is the way they’ve deployed each
of them.
• Some 29% have adopted Web conferencing as a cloud-
based app, such as Cisco WebEx.
• Of all organisations, 26% get business telephony in a
hosted model.
Certain industries are embracing cloud-based collaboration
considerably faster than others. More than half of healthcare
organisations, for instance, have deployed telephony, desktop
videoconferencing, and instant messaging (IM) applications
via hosted services. Professional services firms have been
enthusiastically adopting Web conferencing, office productivity,
and enterprise social as hosted services. Pharmaceutical firms,
on the other hand, show a marked disinterest in cloud-based
collaboration, preferring to deploy video, telephony, messaging,
and other software on-premise.

20. 20
Other collaboration tools
supplement rather
than replace corporate
telephony
Telephony was, and remains, the cornerstone of
corporate communications. An organisation might deploy
videoconferencing systems in conference rooms, replace its
intranet with enterprise social software, install messaging
applications on employees’ laptops and mobile devices.
But, inevitably, this is alongside the telephony system or
service that underpins communications among employees,
customers, and partners.
The telephony system also tends to be the starting point
for enterprises migrating to unified communications (UC)
solutions that combine voice, instant messaging (IM), desktop
videoconferencing, and basic document collaboration
capabilities. There’s essentially no enterprise telephony system or
service on the market that cannot be deployed as a UC platform
with integrated video and instant messaging (IM). Enterprises
have been migrating traditional telephony systems to UC for
a decade or more, resulting in a comparatively high number
of employees with access to corporate instant messaging (IM).
More specifically, 19% of enterprises say all employees have
access to and regularly use an IM application, while another
24% say most employees do.
Despite the growing importance of other forms of
communications, such as video and text-based messaging,
enterprises neither see a decline in the use of traditional
telephony systems, nor do they expect to see this in the near
future. When asked about employees’ use of enterprise voice
technology, 39% of IT departments say they expect usage to
increase over the next year, with half saying it will increase
greatly. Comparing telephony with other, in many cases,
newer collaboration technologies, employees’ use of only Web
conferencing and video systems deployed in multipurpose
conference rooms is expected to increase more.
UC underpins
collaboration

21. 21
The telephony system also tends to be the starting point for
enterprises migrating to unified communications solutions that
combine voice, instant messaging (IM), desktop videoconferencing,
and basic document collaboration capabilities.
Increase greatly Increase slightly Remain same Decrease
Enterprise voice 13% 26% 8%53%
48% 11%16% 25%Audio conferencing
6%18% 39% 38%Web conferencing
12%18% 18% 51%Instant messaging (IM)
43% 14%16% 27%Enterprise social
Videoconferencing for
multipurpose conference rooms
11%6% 39% 44%
Videoconferencing for individual use 15%12% 25% 48%
How employees’ use of collaboration technologies
is expected to change over the next year
Figure 8: Telephony remains in high demand

22. 22
Enterprises turn to visual
communications
Videoconferencing has emerged as a widely accepted form of
business communications. Businesses use it internally to help
geographically dispersed teams work more closely with one
another. Businesses also use it for external communications, as
a way to facilitate face-to-face communications with
partners, suppliers, investors, and sales prospects.
Once available only via expensive, difficult-to-use systems
deployed in conference rooms, video communications is now
readily available via a range of applications (such as instant
messaging (IM), Web conferencing, team collaboration
platforms like Slack and Cisco Spark, virtual meeting rooms)
and devices (such as laptops, tablets, smart phones, and
dedicated desktop video systems).
The ability to launch video conversations from a wide range
of applications that employees already use to do their jobs is
making it pervasive within many enterprises. That is to say,
employees can start videoconferences from a wide range of
systems, devices, and applications available to them at work. In
many cases, it’s very rare for organisations not to be investing at
all in video technology, with nine out of 10 enterprises investing
in and making it available to employees.
Broadly speaking, there are three types of videoconferencing
technology that enterprises make available to their employees:
• videoconferencing via dedicated video rooms, such
as conference settings devoted to immersive telepresence
• videoconferencing via multipurpose conference rooms,
which have been equipped with videoconferencing systems
which may or may not be used in any given meeting
• videoconferencing for individual use, spanning desktop
applications, video-capable desk phones, and desktop
video terminals
Each of these is widely used within the enterprise. Three out of
four LoBs say at least some in their department regularly uses
desktop videoconferencing and other kinds of personal video
technology, with one in six saying everyone in their department
regularly uses them.
Different types of videoconferencing tend to appeal to
organisations in different industries. Retailers tend to have a
lower number of employees regularly using video systems in
conference rooms, and more conducting video communications
over personal devices. It’s the opposite at manufacturers
and government institutions, which tend to have room-
based videoconferencing systems more widely available than
organisations in other industries.
Video is becoming
pervasive

23. 23
All employees Most employees (~75%) Some employees (~50%) Few employees (~25%)
Videoconferencing for individual use 16% 14% 23% 23%
27% 15%17% 17%Videoconferencing for multipurpose conference rooms
Videoconferencing via dedicated video rooms 17%24% 16% 27%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Figure 9: Video communications pervasive within the enterprise
Employees regularly using videoconferencing technology
Three out of four LoBs
say at least some in their
department regularly uses
desktop videoconferencing
and other kinds of personal
video technology, with one in
six saying everyone in their
department regularly uses them.
Ensuring employees
understand the value of video
communications
As with many types of collaboration technology, purchasing
and deploying videoconferencing technology is only the first
step in making sure it’s widely used within the company. As
noted in the discussion on how enterprises successfully benefit
from collaboration technology, there are many things that IT
departments and LoBs both need to do post deployment. One
of the first tasks on any company’s post-deployment to-do
list should be ensuring that employees are aware that the
collaboration tools exist in the first place.
Many enterprises’ collaboration initiatives are hampered
because employees don’t know they have access to the
technology, whether it comes in the form of telepresence rooms
at corporate headquarters or the personal video application
that IT could deploy on their PCs or laptops. Only 9% of IT
departments say they haven’t deployed videoconferencing in
conference rooms, but 24% of LoBs say they don’t have access
to such systems. The implication is that, while IT departments
might have successfully deployed cameras, MCUs, and other
video equipment in conference rooms throughout their
company, end users are either not aware it exists or not aware
that they can use it.
Similarly just 15% of IT departments say they’re not providing
employees with desktop videoconferencing apps, but, again,
24% of employees say they don’t have such tools. In this case,
IT may have purchased rights for their company’s employees
to use personal video communications software, but this has
perhaps not been communicated to the employees themselves.
IT departments should make sure employees within the
company are fully aware of the collaboration tools available to
them. Simply deploying the videoconferencing systems doesn’t
necessarily mean everyone in the company knows that it’s there
and how to use it.

24. 24
Video communications will become a common way employees
interact with one another. Video capabilities are being
embedded into more and more business applications, making
the set-up of a video call as easy as a click of the mouse.
Complicated video systems that have long lurked in the
corners of conference rooms, requiring trained IT professionals
to operate them, are being retired and replaced with newer
solutions with ease-of-use foremost in their designers’ minds.
Increase greatly Increase slightly Remain same Decrease slightly Decrease greatly
11%
6%
12%
29%
39%
25%
48% 48%
44%
12% 14%
10%
0% 1% 1%
Videoconferencing for multipurpose conference rooms
Videoconferencing for individual use
Videoconferencing via dedicated video rooms
Expected change in video technology usage over next year
Figure 10: Use of video communications technology set to rise
All this will result in a steady increase in video usage within
enterprises. Nearly half of IT departments are anticipating
that usage of video systems in multipurpose conference
rooms will increase in the next 12 months, while only
slightly less will foresee a similar increase in other types of
videoconferencing technology.
Many enterprises’ collaboration initiatives are hampered
because employees don’t know they have access to the
technology, whether it comes in the form of telepresence rooms
at corporate headquarters or the personal video application
that IT could deploy on their PCs or laptops.

25. 25
Widespread use of social
applications central to many
organisations’ collaboration
strategies
Social networking has transformed the way individuals
interact with friends, family, and acquaintances in their
personal lives, and enterprise social software is likewise
transforming interactions in the workplace. A cornerstone of
many organisations’ collaboration strategies, enterprise social
enhances the way employees share, find, and organise the
information they and their co-workers need to do their jobs.
It’s also key to reducing email, providing employees with an
alternative, more engaging way to message one another.
Social software has entered the enterprise in many guises:
• all-encompassing platforms, such as Jive and IBM
Connections, which are designed to be used company-wide
and can replace traditional intranets
• lighter-weight social applications, such as Yammer, that
provide fewer features at a much lower price point
• micro-blogging applications, such as Salesforce Chatter,
that are associated with a specific function such as CRM
• team collaboration applications, such as Slack and Cisco
Spark, designed to provide activity streams that streamline
workflow and enhance project management
• consumer-grade social applications that have been
modified for enterprise use, such as Facebook for Business
A cornerstone of many organisations’ collaboration
strategies, enterprise social enhances the way
employees share, find, and organise the information
they and their co-workers need to do their jobs.
Enterprise social
transforms
communications

26. 26
Because of the many ways social software enters the enterprise,
it’s uncommon for it to be entirely absent at most organisations.
And for many businesses, its use is quite widespread. At one
enterprise out of every three, social software is used by all or
most employees, with nearly half of all organisations expecting
usage to increase over the next year. Educational institutions
and financial institutions have particularly embraced enterprise
social. Very few enterprises – between 10% and 30% – provide
employees with no social software whatsoever.
Social networking has
transformed the way
individuals interact with
friends, family, and
acquaintances in their
personal lives, and enterprise
social software is likewise
transforming interactions in
the workplace.
All employees
Most employees (~75%)
Some employees (~50%)
Few employees (~25%)
Employees have no access to this now, but IT will provide it in next 12 months
Employees have no access to this now, and there are no plans to provide it
Employees regularly using enterprise
social software
Figure 12: Enterprise social established in
many organisations
10%
14%
21%
21%
33%
1%
Employees regularly using enterprise social software
Figure 11: The expanding reach and range of enterprise social networks
Scope of engagement StructuredAd hoc
ScaleofengagementEnterprisePersonal
Activity streams,
workflow,
and integration with LoB
applications, information
systems, and enterprise
applications - CRM, ERP,
and HR
IM
and real-time
collaboration
Events and
calendars
Blogs, microblogs, and
status updates
Social
business
intelligence
and analytics
Company
meetings
Wikis and document sharing
Communities, group
discussions, shared
workspaces, project
management, and
modelling
Decision making
Blogs Micro-blogs
Status updates
‘Social’ email polls,
surveys, idea
management
dashboards, and
gamification
Leaderboards

27. 27
LoBs have a prominent
role in choosing collaboration
technology
Selecting, purchasing, and implementing collaboration
technology has traditionally been part of IT’s remit. The IT
department, after all, has the technical expertise to support
the systems and software, and the budget to buy it in the first
place. Most IT departments still have a very prominent role in
steering their company’s course toward collaboration. The CIO
and IT directors responsible for communications technology
are chiefly responsible for crafting the collaboration strategy
at 60% of enterprises. And IT managers in charge of business
applications tend to be actively involved as well – testament
to the increasingly software-centric nature of collaboration
technology and its effect on business applications that are not
themselves communications or collaboration centric.
However, at many enterprises, LoBs are taking a significant
amount of control over the technology they need to
conduct business:
• Nearly six out of 10 LoBs have their own budget –
independent of IT – to purchase collaboration technology.
• More than half of LoBs have staff within the
department to both implement and support
collaboration technology.
• At nearly half of enterprises, general managers,
regional vice presidents, and other executives without a
role in IT take a leading role in formulating their company’s
collaboration strategy. And at a third of enterprises, the
influence these executives have is increasing.
Far fewer LoBs are authorised to purchase collaboration
technology without IT’s knowledge and consent. This
speaks to the ongoing role that IT can (and should) have
in the technology decisions made by a company’s various
departments and lines of business. This said, 24% of
enterprises say LoBs can in fact purchase and implement
collaboration technology without IT’s approval or involvement.
This points to a certain degree of autonomy that LoBs have
over what tools their workers have to collaborate with one
another. It’s a situation that could challenge IT departments
that want to exercise a high degree of control over the
collaboration technology in use within their company.
But it has the potential benefit of quickly getting the right
tools in the hands of those that need them. LoBs are much
more familiar with how workers in their departments
interact with each other, as well as with partners and clients.
With that knowledge, they can identify what collaboration
tools would best improve their workflow and implement
them independently.
We’re all in this
together

28. 28
Communication and
coordination are key to
resolving conflicts between
LoBs and IT
LoBs exercising control over what collaboration technology
is made available to them will be a mixed blessing for most
enterprises. On the one hand, IT becomes less autocratic,
selecting and delivering what collaboration technologies are
provided to departments and lines of business. This could be
problematic if this is done without taking into account the social
dynamics particular to one department, or how much more
lines of business needs to collaborate with partners compared
to the rest of the company.
But with LoBs more active in the technology selection and
deployment process, IT has the opportunity to enter into
more of a partnership with the various corporate divisions
that make up its user base. LoBs are now in a better position
of making each of their requirements known when it comes
to collaboration.
However, LoBs with an active role over IT decisions can also
create complications and misunderstandings. LoBs may think
they have more technical expertise than they actually do, which
could result in implementation and support problems that IT will
need to solve. And LoBs may not necessarily coordinate with
each other, resulting, for example, in the acquisition of different
vendors’ collaboration products, when sourcing from a single
provider would have been less complicated and less expensive.
Ability for LoBs to purchase, implement, and support
collaboration and other kinds of technology
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
LoB has budget to purchase
LoB can purchase and implement
without IT’s express consent
LoB has staff to support the technology
LoB has no independent IT-related capabilities
LoB has staff to implement
LoBs saying this is the case IT departments saying this is the case
Figure 13: LoBs have significant control over collaboration technology
And there may be confusion over where IT’s authority and
activity ends and where LoB’s begins. In enterprises where LoBs
and IT share responsibility for selecting technology, more than
half of IT departments consider themselves to be the primary
decision-makers, whereas less than a third of LoBs think IT has
the leading role:
• LoBs are much more likely than IT to think general
managers’ influence over the selection of collaboration
technology is increasing, pointing to questions
over leadership.
• LoBs are more likely than IT to think IT pays for and
implements collaboration technology, pointing to questions
about budget and purchasing processes.
• LoBs are more likely than IT to think various types of
collaboration technology is unavailable to them, pointing
to communication issues.
• LoBs are more likely than IT to say various types
of collaboration technology are being actively and
widely used within their various departments and divisions,
implying that IT might not be aware how vital collaboration
is to employees.
In enterprises where selecting and implementing collaboration
technology is a joint responsibility, LoBs and IT departments
must work together to select and implement the collaboration
tools that are best suited to the company and its employees.

29. 29
Use of consumer-grade
applications widespread in the
workplace
Until recently, shadow IT and the consumerisation of IT
plagued IT departments tasked with ensuring that all
communications and collaboration technology used by their
company is reliable, highly available, secure, and compliant
with governmental regulations.
Shadow IT, technology used inside businesses without
the knowledge or explicit approval of IT, continues to be
problematic since it circumvents IT policies, and potentially
exposes a company to risk. This includes:
• portable storage drives and cloud storage instead of
secure network storage
• rogue access points that affect network security
• messaging applications that send and archive sensitive
company information
• personal email accounts used for business purposes
• employee-owned smart phones whose loss can result in
the loss of corporate data stored on them
However, enterprises’ attitudes toward consumer-grade
technology has become more nuanced. In the context of
collaboration, this technology typically includes:
• Skype and Google Talk for voice communications
• Hangouts, WhatsApp, and Facetime for messaging
• Gmail and Yahoo Mail for email
• Dropbox and Evernote for cloud storage
• Google Apps for office productivity
• YouTube for video content sharing
IT departments once simply banned the use of consumer-grade
collaboration applications, but this is becoming less common.
Most enterprises – nine out of every 10 – have no ban on
them. Of these, a few – one in five – let LoBs use consumer-
grade technology without informing IT, while the majority have
instituted policies governing which applications can be used.
Emerging from
the shadow

30. 30
Why consumer-grade
collaboration applications
are popular
There are many reasons why the use of consumer-grade
collaboration applications is so widespread within the
enterprise. Often delivered in a software-as-a-service model,
they tend to be easy for either IT or end users to adopt.
Often sold in a freemium model, they tend to be less
expensive than business applications. The top reasons LoBs
say they use them include:
• Employees are more familiar with how to use
consumer-grade collaboration apps than business apps.
• Employees want to use the same applications for
personal and business use.
• Employees need to communicate and collaborate with
customers, partners, and collaborators outside the
company, and collaboration applications provided by IT
are for internal employees only.
Why employees use consumer-grade
collaboration apps without IT’s approval
Can’t collaborate with people outside
company with business apps from IT
IT turned down employees’
approval request for consumer apps
IT’s approval process for
consumer apps is slow and difficult
IT isn’t delivering the collaboration
apps employees need
Employees want same apps
for personal and business use
Consumer apps easier to
use than business apps
Consumer apps meet employees’
needs better than business apps
Employees already familiar
with consumer apps
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Figure 14: LoBs looking for ways to collaborate with partners
LoBs saying this is the case IT departments saying this is the case
IT may not realise the importance of this last point. Many
business-grade messaging, enterprise social, and other types
of collaboration applications that IT has deployed allow for
interactions with others inside the company, but not with
people outside the organisation. Sending instant messages
to colleagues is certainly useful, but there will be occasions
when the end users will want to send messages to external
participants. If the business messaging application doesn’t
allow for this, the end user will turn to the consumer-grade
equivalent. Similarly, if a company’s enterprise social software
can only be used among co-workers, an employee needing
a similar tool to collaborate with outsiders will turn to other
personal tools to get the job done.
Interacting with people outside of one’s company is, in
fact, the second most common reason employees have
adopted consumer-grade communications and collaboration
applications, with two-thirds of LoBs saying this is their
motivation. Conversely, it is at the bottom of the IT
department’s list.

31. 31
Consumer-grade collaboration
increasingly favoured by IT
The consumerisation of IT is not only changing end users’
expectations for business applications in terms of accessibility
and ease of use, it’s also changing IT departments’ attitudes
toward consumer-grade collaboration technology. As noted,
most IT departments have implemented formal processes
through which employees can request permission to use a
particular consumer application. This lets IT ensure that it
meets the company’s security and compliance standards and
doesn’t duplicate technology that IT has already purchased and
deployed. It also lets IT know what consumer-grade applications
are used by which departments, so they can make it available to
other departments or negotiate for better pricing, as needed.
More and more, IT departments have fully embraced consumer-
grade collaboration technology, acquiring it for the company
and making it available to employees. Audio conferencing,
Web conferencing, and file-sharing applications are among the
most popular consumer-grade collaboration technology that IT
departments make available to their constituents.
Part of the reason IT is embracing consumer-grade collaboration
technology is because of how pervasive it has become across
their organisations. Of consumer-grade collaboration software
used by employees without IT authorisation:
• Consumer-grade collaboration applications are used in
50% of enterprises.
• Consumer-grade web conferencing applications are used
in 75% of enterprises.
• Consumer-grade document-sharing applications are used
in 70% of enterprises.
• Consumer-grade videoconferencing applications are
used in 60% of enterprises.
Additionally, a small but growing number of consumer-grade
applications have enterprise versions that address many IT
concerns. Subscribing to these, IT can address its various
reliability, security, compliance, and other concerns, while at the
same time delivering the familiar, easy-to-use applications to
end users.
Voice
Audio conferencing
Collaboration/teamwork
Document/file sharing
Enterprise social
Videoconferencing
Web conferencing
Messaging
10% 14% 31%25% 20%
7% 12% 32%23% 26%
7% 18% 38%20% 17%
17% 15% 18%18% 31%
4% 10% 19%21% 47%
28% 24% 13%17% 19%
13% 21% 11%32% 23%
21% 22%19%27%11%
All Most Some Few Not provided
Employees regularly using consumer-grade
collaboration applications purchased by IT
Figure 15: Many IT departments are providing and supporting consumer-grade collaboration apps

32. 32
Your transformation,
your terms
With 86% of respondents showing improved productivity,
70% improved sales, and 63% improved competitive
advantage, it’s clear from the 2016 Connected Enterprise
Report that collaboration is an essential element in the
digital business of the future.
To achieve transformation, the needs of lines of business (LoBs)
have to be recognised, as they’re the key to unlock and fund
business return. A worrying aspect in the Report is the ongoing
disconnect between IT and the LoB, which will lead to shadow
IT behaviour, siloed decisions, and business inefficiency. This is
compounded by technology budgets being aggressively reduced
— typically by 20% per year.
What does this mean
for the modern CIO?
• The CIO must tap into LoB budget to align to meet
strategic enterprise objectives.
• The CIO must ensure shadow IT doesn’t get out of
control, leading to indirect operational costs, as well as
infrastructure, governance, compliance, and
security issues.
Being relevant to the LoB means you must be flexible to
business change, which is often difficult when restricted by
limitations of the past. CIOs often state their goal is to provide
more services to the end user, but don’t have the budget to
remain relevant: as much as 60% of their budget is tied to
carrier costs, or they’re in an existing depreciation cycle for their
core infrastructure.
To achieve transformation,
the needs of lines of business
(LoBs) have to be recognised, as
they’re the key to unlock and
fund business return.
Conclusion

33. 33
Optimise to
transform
The key is to create sustainable relevance. This approach
is called ‘Optimise to Transform’, and it has four strategic
considerations:
• cost down
• risk out
• speed up
• innovation in
With this approach, you will ensure that your current
investment is being optimised and adopted. This may seem self-
evident but consider the following influences:
• The use of consumer applications in the business
environment is growing.
• The chasm between IT and the LoB is widening.
• The awareness and adoption of collaboration tools remains
relatively low.
With these factors in mind, can cost control be maximised?
Is the scarcity and scalability of expertise risk truly mitigated?
Of course, the answers will be different for every workload and
every organisation. A first step is to identify your risk exposure
— because this should determine your strategy, not the hype
around cloud or next-generation infrastructure.
IT and business
coming together
Once your existing environment is optimised, the
platform is now open for speed, innovation, and agility.
The LoB can take their entrepreneurial nature and
understanding of their customers to bring innovative ideas into
the collaboration strategy.
However, they still need to work with IT. While IT’s relevance
is more important than ever, the reason for this relevance is
changing. More and more, the modern CIO views IT as an entity
that is inextricably tied to the LoB. No longer just a provider of
technology, IT now maximises the business outcomes defined by
the LoB’s technology strategy.
Although we rank top globally
with many of the world’s largest
vendors, we remain proudly
client-centric. Working with
preferred vendors, we’re able to
leverage multiple technologies
to create a customised, flexible
solution in line with your
business needs.

34. 34
Dimension Data
and collaboration
Dimension Data is the world’s leading solution provider in the collaboration space. We
deliver the most complete range of consulting, professional, supply chain, managed,
and cloud services. We have direct presence in 58 countries and in a further 140
countries through our Preferred Partner Programme.
Although we rank top globally with many of the world’s largest vendors, we remain
proudly client-centric. Working with preferred vendors, we’re able to leverage multiple
technologies to create a customised, flexible solution in line with your business needs.