中小企业通信痛点研究白皮书

揭示通信障碍和延迟的隐性成本

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The following white paper outlines the findings of a study sponsored by Siemens Communications and prepared by SIS International Research. It discusses and quantifies the hidden cost of communications barriers and latency that small and medium-sized businesses in 8 different countries, across 8 different verticals, and up to 400 employees experience in their daily business activities.

This white paper will demonstrate the inherent need for Siemens Enterprise Communications’ SMB unified communications solutions.

执行摘要

An SMB with 100 employees could be leaking a staggering $524,569 annually as a result of communications barriers and latency. Communications barriers and latency surrounding everyday business process and collaboration are referred to as, “communications pain”. Not addressing these everyday communications pains leads to increased operating costs, unsatisfied customers, and impaired competitive advantage. Siemens commissioned a study performed by SIS International Research to uncover the real costs to small and medium businesses (SMBs) around the globe.

该研究的主要发现包括：

• SMBs and LEs experience similar communications pain
• Communications barriers and latency are widespread
• Communications pain is costly for SMBs
• Addressing communications inefficiencies is a high priority for SMBs
• Evolving business environment is driving mobility among SMBs
• SMB mobility is driving the need for improved communications solutions
• Fragmented and varied technologies limit communication efficiency
• Unified communications is taking root with SMBs

背景

西门子企业通信是统一通信领域的全球领导者。他们已委托 Forrester、SQM Research、BaseX Research、Aberdeen Research 和 Insignia Research 等机构开展了多项有关通信障碍的研究。

Unified communications (UC) and mobility are emerging solutions areas in SMB communications. The promise of UC is to make communications technology seamless, easy, and cost-effective via Internet Protocol. The promise of mobility will speed the nature of communications. Many large enterprises have been evaluating and adopting these technologies to improve business processes, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction.

Unlike previous studies, this study was designed to explore and quantify communication difficulties experienced specifically by small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) of up to 400 employees. This has allowed us to understand the pain points, delays, and costs experienced by SMBs. Further, we were able to uncover that, like large enterprises, SMBs are seeking solutions to communications latency and to improve communications for mobile employees.

目标

本研究旨在实现四个主要目标：
1、对比中小型企业与大型企业的沟通痛点；
2. 检查围绕流程协调和协作的沟通障碍和延迟；
3. 考察中小企业当前对非传统技术的使用情况和兴趣；
4. 了解统一通信如何帮助中小企业通过改善通信来改进流程和降低成本。

方法

Telephone surveys of 513 respondents were conducted from September through November 2008. Contacts were managed to achieve balance across three key segments: employee size, industry vertical, and country.

注意：本白皮书中的图表和图解中使用的数字均已四舍五入，因此总和可能不等于 100%。

受访者概况

受访公司来自世界三大经济区中的八个国家：美国、西欧和金砖四国中的三个。具体来说，调查涉及的国家包括：巴西、法国、德国、印度、意大利、俄罗斯、美国和英国。

参与调查的企业属于以下八个垂直行业之一： 通信、金融、医疗保健、保险、制造、专业商业服务、房地产以及批发或零售贸易。

For this study, Communications refers to a collection of communications-related professions including computer technology and hardware and software development. Similarly, Professional Business Services refers to a collection of professions, including accounting, consulting, and legal business services. Finally, care was taken to ensure respondents within the Healthcare vertical were employees of non-government healthcare-related businesses.

All respondents were knowledge workers in small to medium-sized businesses of up to 400 employees. This document makes use of the terms “knowledge worker” and “employee”. For this document, a knowledge worker is defined as an employee who primarily utilizes information/knowledge to accomplish work tasks. Knowledge workers include resources that regularly leverage communications technology and are in roles such as management, information technology, customer service, and sales and marketing. “Employee” refers to all employees of an organization, regardless of their role or use of communications technology.

补偿率

薪资信息是从 www.salary.com 收集的，涵盖八个国家八个垂直行业的知识型员工。从该来源报告的数据不包括福利成本，因此添加了标准 30% 来计算这些成本。为了便于本报告，薪酬率以美元显示，汇率以 2008 年 12 月 1 日为准。

主要发现

This study was designed to build upon research and findings from a communications pain study conducted on behalf of Siemens Enterprise Communications by Insignia Research in 2007. SIS International Research’s analysis of the Insignia data looked at the relative importance of the ten pain points across small to medium businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises (LEs). As shown in the table below, the cost in USD per knowledge worker per year was used to determine the relative ranking of pain points.

Various communications barriers and latency surrounding process alignment and collaboration can be called communications pain. Coordinating communications between team members, juggling multiple means of communication, and handling unscheduled or low-priority communications that disrupt the flow of work are all types of communications pain experienced by SMBs. Individually and collectively, these various types of communication barriers are referred to as pain points.

中小企业和低收入国家面临类似的沟通难题
While differences in productivity cost exist in absolute dollar terms and in the relative ranking of individual pain points between SMBs and LEs, the top five pain points are the same. Waiting for information, unwanted communications, inefficient coordination, barriers to collaboration, and customer complaints were the five most expensive pain points for both groups. Further, the cumulative annual cost of the status quo for these five pain points was not significantly different between SMBs at $35,196 and LEs at $36,443 per knowledge worker per year. This is based on the time spent addressing these pain points and an average hourly compensation rate of $37.

通信障碍和延迟普遍存在

In the 2008 study, SMB respondents were asked to tell us about their experience and that of their colleagues with each of the top five communications pain points. On average, 70% of respondents said they have experienced these pain points. The respondents also stated that they spend, on average, a total of 17.5 hours per week addressing them.

协调效率低下
68% of respondents stated that they experience difficulty coordinating communications between team members, which affects a team’s ability to respond quickly to time-sensitive customer requests. Further, they spend an average of 3.7 hours per week attempting to coordinate communications between team members, hindering a team’s efficiency in moving towards goals and deadlines.

等待信息
68% of all respondents experience work delays while waiting for information from others that they have attempted to reach live multiple times using multiple methods. The average delay is 3.5 hours per week per knowledge worker. This is a considerable amount of time to spend before making progress on a particular task, which could negatively affect critical business processes.

不需要的通讯
不受欢迎的通信，包括低优先级的电话和语音邮件，是调查组最常遇到的痛点。77% 的受访者表示，他们每周要花两个小时或更多时间处理不受欢迎的通信。这些干扰会分散注意力并扰乱工作流程，导致生产力下降和错过最后期限。

顾客投诉
74% 的受访者表示，他们平均每周要花 3.3 小时处理客户的负面评论或投诉，特别是因为客户无法及时联系到他们。虽然 8% 的生产力损失本身就很严重，但客户不满意的真正成本肯定要大得多。

合作障碍
61% of respondents find difficulty in establishing collaboration sessions with colleagues. Further, they spend an average of 3.3 hours per week attempting to address issues of inaccessibility, or other communication-tool-based lack of full collaboration with colleagues.

考虑到每周有 40% 的工作时间因这些沟通效率低下而损失，而且大多数受访者都担任面向客户和决策的角色。这对关键业务流程、新收入和客户满意度的负面影响显而易见。

沟通困难对中小企业来说代价高昂

因沟通障碍导致生产力损失而维持现状的累计成本估计为每位知识型员工每年 $26,041。这一数字是通过将处理每个痛点所花费的时间与接受调查的每个国家和垂直行业的知识型员工的薪酬率相乘得出的。

When one considers that the respondents further estimated that an average of 20% of all employees within their companies similarly experience these pain points, the cost of the status quo for an SMB would amount to $5,246 per year per employee, assuming that 100% of the time reported addressing these issues is unproductive. Thus, for example, an SMB with 100 employees could be leaking a staggering $524,569 annually as a result of inefficiencies in communication.

解决沟通效率低下是中小企业的首要任务
调查受访者被问及他们公司改进沟通解决方案以解决每个痛点的优先顺序。受访者被要求考虑 1 到 5 的等级，其中 1 代表“完全不是优先事项”，5 代表“极度优先”。

Overall, 41% of respondents stated that having a system to reduce the time spent addressing all of these pain points is a very high priority for their businesses. Figure 3 illustrates that even in countries where the time spent per week addressing these pain points and the resultant cost of the status quo are relatively low, the priority for a solution is high.

例如，俄罗斯和巴西的中小企业报告称，他们花费在解决这些痛点上的时间最少，成本也最低。然而，他们解决这些痛点的优先程度却达到或超过了全球平均水平。

Time spent per week addressing communications issues varies by vertical from about 14 hours in Finance to almost 20 hours in Healthcare and Manufacturing. This variation can be attributed, in part, to the fact that certain verticals are characterized by highly transactional businesses. The transactional nature of a business drives up the frequency and severity of communications needs.

For example, Wholesale/Retail Trade, a vertical characterized by a high volume of low-value transactions, reports above-average frequency and severity of pain points. Conversely, Finance and Professional Business Services report lower than average frequency and severity of pain points, as they are better characterized by a lower volume of higher-value transactions.

虽然解决痛点所花费的时间和维持现状的成本因垂直行业而异，但解决这些沟通效率低下问题的优先级除少数例外都非常高，且紧密集中在全球平均水平 41% 左右。

随着中小企业员工数量的增加，公司更有可能将解决沟通效率低下问题作为优先事项。员工人数达到 20 人时会出现明显的拐点。员工人数超过 20 人的中小企业的优先级比员工人数较少的公司高出 43% 以上。

This correlation stands to reason as the utility of communications solutions increases exponentially with the number of users in the network. Causally, the time spent per week by knowledge workers in companies with over 20 employees is more than 50% higher than that of companies with fewer than 20 employees.

不断发展的商业环境推动移动出行
信息时代的商业环境不断发展。随着这种发展，企业需要：

• Service customers over broader geographic areas;
• Must provide more information, better service, and improved collaboration;
• Must reduce response times and deliver goods, services, and information faster.

中小企业也未能免受这些商业现实的影响。因此，中小企业员工无论在办公桌前、在办公室周围、在会议中、在路上还是在家工作，都应保持联系畅通。

中小企业的高移动性推动对改进通信解决方案的需求

中小企业员工的移动性很高，超过 50% 的受访者称自己是移动工作者。此外，这些受访者中有 48% 从事多种类型的移动工作。

Overall, 76% of all mobile SMB respondents are on the road a lot, going out to meet clients, drumming up business, or talking to vendors. These mobile workers are road warriors. 64% are office roamers who are hardly at their desks; constantly roaming around the office for meetings or talking with colleagues. Finally, 27% work from home either occasionally or 100% of the time.

In reviewing the survey results aggregated by country, two key clusters emerge. It appears that the underlying state of economic and infrastructure development of a country has a significant impact on the necessity and ability to enable a mobile workforce. Thus, the developed economies in Western Europe and the US exhibit higher levels of mobility relative to the emerging economies of Brazil and Russia.

虽然印度传统上被归类为新兴经济体，但该国对发展信息经济的重视加速了其对移动劳动力的利用。因此，印度的表现更像发达国家。

In the aggregate, respondents estimated that 20% of their company employees are road warriors; 19% are office roamers, and 15% find occasion to work from home. Typically, this relationship holds within individual countries as well, with road warriors and office roamers being more prevalent than home workers.

受访者被问及他们公司为三类移动工作者改进通信解决方案的优先顺序，采用 1 到 5 的等级，其中 1 代表“完全不是优先顺序”，5 代表“极度优先顺序”。

除少数例外，即使在公司范围内某一特定类型的移动工作人员比例较低的国家，中小企业也高度或极度重视改善这些移动工作人员的通信。

技术分散、种类繁多，限制沟通效率
中小企业越来越多地使用通信技术来提高生产力和进行创新。此外，他们还寻求利用能够实现移动办公的解决方案。我们要求中小企业告诉我们他们目前在业务中使用的通信技术类型。我们发现：

• 60% of SMBs surveyed currently use a contact center system to receive, route, queue, and respond to large volumes of phone calls, emails, faxes, and instant messages;
• 79% of all SMBs surveyed use a traditional PBX;
• 41% of SMBs surveyed currently use VoIP;
• 47% of all SMBs surveyed stated that their companies utilize social networking for business activities such as sales, marketing, and recruiting; and
• 49% of respondents cite the need for wireless internet access for work.

此外，中小企业利用互联网完成各种任务。在我们询问的任务中，即时消息、视频会议和传真服务最为普遍。即时消息明显处于领先地位，所有受访者中有 73% 使用互联网进行即时通讯，而 56% 使用互联网进行视频会议和传真服务。

考虑到中小企业部署的所有技术，人们会认为沟通和协作会非常高效。然而，正如本研究显示的那样，效率低下的问题仍然存在。

These technologies have indeed improved the communications capabilities of these organizations. However, the proliferation of varied and fragmented communications technologies has created the need for users to contend with multiple devices, tools, and applications. Therefore, rather than improving efficiencies in communication and collaboration, these fragmented communication solutions have become a barrier to effective communication and collaboration. The need for a unified communications solution is apparent.

统一通信正在中小企业中扎根
受访者被问及对“统一通信”一词的熟悉程度。83% 的受访者表示他们至少听说过统一通信。

总体而言，随着公司规模的扩大，对统一通信的熟悉程度也随之提高。因此，在员工人数少于 20 人的公司中，78% 的受访者表示至少听说过统一通信，而在员工人数为 300-400 人的公司中，平均有 85% 表示听说过统一通信。

来自发达经济体的受访者表示对统一通信的熟悉程度较高。巴西和俄罗斯的受访者对统一通信的熟悉程度最低，两国各有 37% 的受访者表示不熟悉或不知道“统一通信”一词。

通信垂直行业的员工表示，他们对统一通信的了解程度最高，其中 56% 表示他们相当或非常熟悉该术语。相比之下，金融垂直行业的受访者对统一通信的不熟悉程度平均最高。毫不奇怪，工作职能与技术相关的受访者对统一通信的熟悉程度更高。

62% 的受访者能够说出至少一个统一通信提供商。其中思科、微软和西门子是最常被提及的。在发达经济体中，全球提供商最常被提及。然而，在印度、俄罗斯和巴西等新兴经济体中，区域性提供商更常被提及。

受访者还被问及他们的公司目前是否使用统一通信产品。41% 的所有调查受访者表示他们的公司目前使用统一通信产品。据报道，微软、西门子和 IBM 在当前 UC 用户中所占比例最高。

There is a clear correlation between employee size and current utilization of UC. Further, there is a significant jump in the use of unified communications products by SMBs with more than 20 employees and, again, for SMBs with more than 300 employees. Thus, only 20% of SMBs with fewer than 20 employees currently use UC while 53% of SMBs with over 300 employees do.

就国家而言，目前 UC 产品的使用情况存在很大差异。印度、俄罗斯和巴西等新兴经济体与较为成熟的美国和欧洲经济体之间存在明显差距。较发达经济体的统一通信使用率平均为 53%，是新兴经济体的两倍多。

从垂直行业来看，通信行业是目前使用统一通信产品最多的行业，共有 55% 中小企业使用。金融行业中小企业使用统一通信产品最少，仅有 27%。

中小企业认识到统一通信产品的实用性，并且相当熟悉该技术和当前的提供商。UC 产品的使用在中小企业中越来越受欢迎，但近 60% 的中小企业目前尚未采用 UC 解决方案。这为 UC 普及带来了巨大的增长机会。

结论

沟通障碍和延迟在中小企业中普遍存在。平均有 70% 的受访者表示他们经历过这五个痛点。受访者还表示，他们平均每周要花 17.5 个小时来解决这些问题。

沟通障碍对中小企业而言代价高昂。由于沟通障碍导致生产力损失，目前状况下的累计成本估计为每位知识型员工每年 $26,041 美元。

Further, the respondents estimated that an average of 20% of all employees within their companies similarly experience these pain points. Given this, the cost of the status quo for an SMB would amount to $5,246 per year per employee, assuming that 100% of the time reported addressing these issues is unproductive. Thus, for example, an SMB with 100 employees could be leaking a staggering $524,569 annually as a result of inefficiencies in communication.

Addressing communications inefficiencies is a high priority for SMBs. Overall, 41% of respondents stated that having a system to reduce the time spent addressing all of these pain points is a very high priority for their businesses. Even in countries and verticals where the time spent per week addressing these pain points and the resultant costs of the status quo are relatively low, the priority for a solution is high.

随着中小企业员工数量的增加，公司更有可能将解决通信效率低下问题放在首位。这是有道理的，因为通信解决方案的效用会随着网络中用户数量的增加而呈指数级增长。

商业性质的不断演变推动了移动性的必要性。随着商业环境变得越来越复杂，企业必须采取行动保持竞争力。这些行动包括为更广泛的地理区域的客户提供服务、提供更多信息、更好的服务和更好的协作，以及缩短响应时间以更快地交付商品、服务和信息。

中小企业也未能免受这些商业现实的影响。因此，中小企业员工无论在办公桌前、在办公室周围、在会议中、在路上还是在家工作，都应保持联系畅通。

中小企业员工的移动性很高，超过 50% 的受访者称自己是移动工作者。此外，这些受访者中有 48% 从事不止一种类型的移动工作。这种高水平的移动性推动了对改进通信解决方案的需求。除少数例外，即使在公司范围内某一类移动工作者比例较低的国家，中小企业也高度或非常重视改善这些移动工作者的通信。

中小企业越来越多地使用通信技术来提高生产力和创新。各种技术的部署提高了组织的通信能力。然而，各种分散的通信技术的激增使得用户需要应对多种设备、工具和应用程序，从而导致严重的通信效率低下问题持续存在。对统一通信解决方案的需求显而易见。

统一通信正在中小企业领域扎根。中小企业认识到统一通信产品的实用性，并且相当熟悉该技术和当前的提供商。

Usage of UC products is gaining traction among SMBs, however, nearly 60% of SMBs do not currently employ a UC solution. This represents significant growth opportunity for UC penetration.

关于 SIS 国际研究

SIS International Research 是一家专注于市场研究和市场情报的全球研究公司。SIS 成立于 1982 年，全球覆盖范围覆盖欧洲、北美、拉丁美洲、亚洲和中东的 120 多个国家。

我们的核心竞争力在于对全球趋势、市场细分和新兴市场机会的战略分析。我们的行业覆盖范围包括 B2B、消费者、制药、技术、交通运输、服务和教育行业。

关于西门子企业通信

Siemens Enterprise Communications is a joint venture between the private equity firm The Gores Group, a leading private equity firm, and Siemens AG. The joint venture incorporates Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG, its worldwide affiliates, and the businesses of Enterasys Networks and SER Solutions, creating a new leader in enterprise communications – strong in unified communications, contact centers and secure networks. More than 14,000 employees worldwide follow an Open Communications approach, providing enterprise communications and data networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes. This enables business processes to be more productive, faster, and more secure within any network or information technology infrastructure. In fiscal 2007 Siemens Enterprise Communications generated revenues of approximately 3.2 billion Euros.

有关西门子企业通信的更多信息，请访问 www.siemens.com/open

关于 OpenScape Office

OpenScape Office is a unified communications application suite built from the ground, up to address the problems of needless communication costs, overload, and latency for small and medium-sized businesses.

SMBs using OpenScape Office show dramatic savings in the areas of third-party conferencing services, mobile phone service fees, and travel costs. In the areas of business agility, faster decision-making, and task execution result in accelerated customer response times, sales cycles, and time-to-market. Improvement in just one of these areas can mean increased revenues and a clear competitive advantage for SMBs of all sizes in any industry.

What makes OpenScape Office unique is its cost-saving advantages through UC, intuitive user interfaces, easy integration with existing business applications like Microsoft Outlook, and tailored contact center specifically designed for SMBs.