Managing a multitude of Unified Communications (UC) endpoint devices can be tedious, time-consuming and costly. Poor device management therefore poses a real threat to IT managers who oversee UC and workstream collaboration (WSC).
A new report conducted by Osterman Research uncovered some of the ways UC device management is evolving in the enterprise. The survey questioned 103 individuals with knowledge about UC or UCaaS device management in their organisation.
Device management solutions on the rise
Over the past two years, adoption of UC device management solutions rose more than 15%. As a result, almost half of all enterprises have deployed a form of software and one-quarter of these have benefited from an increase in user satisfaction.
52% of the IT managers that had not employed any such solution indicated that they would do so by 2021. Moreover, 42% of those surveyed said that the proportion of their total UC budget represented by device management expenditures will grow over the next three years.
A majority of 85% also believe that proactive management should be the norm with regard to remediation of these problems. Despite this, a significant proportion of organisations did not have the bandwidth or budget to do so.
The complexity of device management
UC device management is becoming increasingly complex and difficult. Some organisations are experiencing serious issues, such as the having the ability to efficiently monitor and troubleshoot UC endpoint devices.
65% of respondents said that they experienced "some problems" when managing endpoint devices. An additional 25% said that they had "serious problems," while just 10% benefited from "minimal problems."
72% experienced "some problems" dealing with firmware upgrades and/or patch issues. 17% also said that they struggled with "serious problems," compared to the 11% who saw "minimal problems."
The value of UC management capabilities
When asked about the perceived value of various UC management capabilities, 64% said that the ability to set up devices remotely was tremendously valuable. 54% also thought that the ability to manage group policies for devices was valuable.
54% saw the value in consolidated UC endpoint management - a single vendor or system to manage all devices. 49% cited the ability to import prior device settings and then re-assign to a different device.
Despite this, UC managers remain in the early stages of embracing enhanced device management. At present, 52% of organisations are not using UC device management solutions and 87% are not using a managed service for their UC endpoint devices.
Overall, the vast majority of enterprises are not using any type of management service for UC devices. However, most plan to do so within the next three years.
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