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U.S. Research Survey: Enterprise Communications Fall Short of Strategic Corporate Goals of More Productivity, Greater Competitiveness and Lower Costs

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 July 2007, 12:22 CDT

Can U.S. firms cut costs while boosting knowledge worker productivity and competitiveness? Not today, according to a recent in-depth survey of 100 U.S. companies with more than 5,000 employees commissioned by Siemens Communications, Inc. (NYSE:SI) and conducted by IDC, a leading provider of global IT research and advice. Nearly 80 percent conceded they lack the communications capabilities needed in working environments that they recognize are increasingly distributed, mobile and virtual.

In fact, 62 percent of respondents -- CIOs and IT directors -- believe the number of mobile employees in their companies will increase. Forty percent believe that the number of virtual teams in their companies will grow. What's more, significant percentages of enterprises also expect a rise in their number of teleworkers, global WAN sites, and ways to reach customers.

"With all the mobile capabilities and dynamic collaboration required by virtual teams, the threat of fragmented communications derailing corporate goals of more productivity and competitiveness while lowering costs has never been greater," said Mark Winther, IDC Group Vice President, Worldwide Telecommunications. "What's needed is an open communications environment that combines unified communications with IT platforms and business process integration along with other streamlining capabilities."

Winther found the IDC survey findings in support of a concept he calls "Enterprise 2.0." This combines Web 2.0 technologies and unified communications as well as their integration with existing horizontal and vertical business applications to enable new ways of working. "For example," he explained, "bringing social networking into the workplace is not about finding interesting people to date but rather about finding people in your company with the knowledge and experience to provide guidance and best practices for completing a work task in a better and more efficient way."

Winther's observations highlight a growing demand by companies to create highly effective Enterprise 2.0 working environments. The Siemens Open Communications strategy addresses this demand by enabling knowledge workers to collaborate much more quickly and effectively, find information and experts rapidly, and get much more done in shorter amounts of time, virtually any place, any time and across whatever device best suits their preference or situation. Its Open Communications portfolio is standards-based to enable integration and interoperability within any IT and communications infrastructure. Siemens Open Communications strategy strives to help companies achieve these results.

The portfolio includes such key offerings as the Siemens HiPath® 8000 communications platform -- an extremely robust, feature-rich and carrier-grade VoIP application that operates as a Web 2.0 enterprise software solution -- as well as the Siemens HiPath OpenScape application, a presence-enabled, multimodal unified communications suite that provides greater employee productivity and collaboration.

Anesthesia Business Consultants, LLC (ABC), one of the country's largest physician practice management firms, has used the Siemens HiPath platform and its complementary Open Communications portfolio to help increase revenues, streamline customer interactions and business processes, and improve its operational efficiency and employee productivity.

According to Tony Mira, President & CEO, his company's adoption of Siemens open communications solutions has effectively transformed its business. "By migrating to an all-IP communications environment, we've been able to solve more of our patient issues on first contact and increase overall patient satisfaction," he said.

"With workforces today and tomorrow being increasingly distributed, mobile and 'virtualized,' companies seeking to sharpen their competitive edge and boost productivity while lowering costs must migrate to an open communications environment," said Eve Aretakis, CEO, Siemens Communications, Inc. "Without such open communications capabilities as unified communications, fixed-mobile convenience, business process integration, among others, enterprises will find themselves falling behind their industry counterparts, with serious implications for their customers, employees and shareholders. An open communications environment can help drive new levels of productivity, responsiveness and efficiency."

Copies of the IDC White Paper "Enterprise 2.0: Creating Competitive Advantage" are available at www.siemens.com/us/open/whitepapers.

About Siemens

Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) is one of the largest global electronics and engineering companies with reported worldwide sales of $107.4 billion in fiscal 2006. Founded 160 years ago, the company is a leader in the areas of Medical, Power, Automation and Control, Transportation, Information and Communications, Lighting, Building Technologies, Water Technologies and Services and Home Appliances. With its U.S. corporate headquarters in New York City, Siemens in the USA has sales of $21.4 billion and employs approximately 70,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Eleven of Siemens' worldwide businesses are based in the United States. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens AG and its subsidiaries employ 480,000 people in 190 countries. For more information on Siemens in the United States: www.usa.siemens.com.

About Siemens Communications, Inc.

Siemens Communications, Inc. is one of the world's leading vendors of Open Communications solutions for enterprises of all sizes, enabling business processes to be more productive, faster and more secure -- with any device, network or information technology infrastructure. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens AG with about 15,000 employees globally and headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla. For more information, visit www.usa.siemens.com/communications.

Note: Siemens and HiPath are registered trademarks of Siemens AG or its subsidiaries and affiliates. All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens management. The words "anticipate,""believe,""estimate,""forecast,""expect,""intend,""plan,""should," and "project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Source: Business Wire

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