Business Case for Cloud-based UC

Most enterprise organizations who roll out premise-based Unified Communications find that this can be an expensive and time consuming endeavor.  A successful deployment requires hardware and software from multiple vendors, integration and a lot of internal and professional services work. 

A hosted model is suggested by Yankee Group as a means for enterprise companies to deploy quickly for less cost (Source: Using Cloud Computing to Accelerate your UC Deployment, Zeus Kerravala, SVP of Enterprise Reaseach, Yankee Group).  When companies compare the cost of cloud-based subscription vs. the cost for hardware, implementation, software licenses and maintenance contracts, there is a clear ROI advantage in the cloud.  Hosted UC is a natural choice for any company seeking the productivity benefits of Unified Communications in a reasonable time frame at a paletable cost.