If you are looking to invest in UC technology in 2022 (or reimagine/upgrade existing systems), here are the top unified communications statistics to remember:
1. Only 12 percent of US workers feel they will have the freedom to work remotely throughout 2022. A study by cloud-based unified communications company, RingCentral, found that employees are worried about workplace flexibility. 80percent currently enjoy the freedom to work from anywhere, but only 12 percent feel they would be able to do this across 2022, which will impact UC needs. Source
2. 74 percent of the new unified communications licenses bought by organizations will be cloud-based by 2024. This finding from Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant for UCaaS predicts growing demand for cloud technologies in the next few years. This translates into greater investment in Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). Source
3. Between February 2020 and February 2021, weekly meeting time for Teams users increased by 148 percent. Microsoft’s 2021 hybrid work report suggests that high productivity and a busy remote collaboration schedule could be “masking an exhausted workforce.” This trend could continue into 2022, necessitating more mindful use of unified communications systems. Source
4. 70 percent of hybrid employees feel too many calls and meetings are disruptive. Echoing Microsoft’s findings, HubSpot’s 2022 report also found that 70 percent of employees feel disrupted and unable to concentrate due to multiple calls and meetings. 58 percent said that half of these meetings could have been emails. Source
5. Less than 1 in 3 employees have received guidelines on how to use unified communication tools. HubSpot’s report found that some of the meeting overload could be attributed to the lack of guidelines and best practices conveyed to employees. As organizations invest more in UC, mindful and gradual adoption has to be a focus in 2022. Source
6. A quarter of US businesses will purchase new phone systems in 2022 and on-premises PBX will account for 40 percent of all UC sales. Eastern Management Group’s latest report indicates that UC purchases will become more diverse, spread across telephony (40percent) and platform-based UCaaS (30percent). 40 percent of customers will also subscribe to managed services from their UC vendor. Source
7. 93 percent of enterprises have increased UC use since the pandemic, but for 43 percent, more than half of IT tickets arise from UC. Even as unified communications adoption increases, NETSCOUT research reveals that its technical issues tend to overwhelm IT. Between 2020 and 2021, the number of UC tools in an enterprise increased by 9percent, causing further support issues. 2022 will be the year to address these growing pains. Source
8. 83 percent of organizations need more than 30 minutes to manually onboard a new user onto a UC platform. This worrying statistic from UC managed services technology provider, Kurmi, indicates that the onboarding experience in unified communications needs work. Automation is important to save costs and time, while also delivering a better end-user experience. Just 5percent of organizations currently use automation in this way. Source
9. 32 percent of UK employees between the ages of 21-24 plan to quit, and 27 percent will quit in the next six months. There is another great resignation in the making in the UK, and organizations must come up with new strategies and tools to support hybrid work. The next wave of resignations could encompass younger workers, as suggested by RingCentral’s latest study. Source
10. Employee use of collaboration tools is up by 44 percent. Gartner’s 2-021 study found that overall use of digital workplace technology has increased significantly since 2019, particularly for collaboration (44 percent), file storage and sharing (16 percent), and real-time mobile messaging (7 percent). These tools adopted to support remote work must be consolidated in 2022. Source
11. The unified communications market will grow by $169.82 billion during 2021-2025, at more than 35 percent CAGR. This is an exceptionally high growth rate spurred by demand for enterprise collaboration, telephony, and contact center tools. The report by market research firm Technavio also found that growth could decelerate post-2022. Source
12. Single-provider UC solutions deliver a 56 percent lower total cost of ownership. As mentioned, UC systems can either be DIY, where companies assemble and integrate point solutions through in-house development. Or, one could subscribe to ready-to-deploy UC suites. Single provider solutions like the latter, unlock a much lower TCO as per a Metrigy 2021 report. This is due to significantly higher IT staffing costs. Source
13. Video meetings, team collaboration, and collaboration security were the top 3 UC investments in 2021. Metrigy found that Companies spent more on unified communications in 2021 across nearly every technology segment, from headsets and analytics to video and collaboration. Interestingly, telephony and virtual assistants saw the least amount of change in investment. Source
14. The business value of cloud communications includes greater ROI (47 percent), employee satisfaction (46 percent), and productivity (32 percent). This survey of RingCentral customers reveals a broader trend for UC buyers in 2022. Unified communications is not just about streamlining IT but also unlocks genuine value for the business. Source
As these unified communications statistics suggest, UC demand will rise in 2022, spurred by employee expectations and hybrid working models. However, organizations must be careful of increasing IT burden and challenges in work-life balance for employees. Cloud-based UCaaS is predicted to be the top-performing segment in this period.
