Without proper planning, UC can be a revenue drain

In just an hour, the freshly announced iPhone 5 pre-order sold out. According to TechCrunch, that is 20 times faster than previous installments. As these new devices start to walk out of Apple retail stores into the corporate world, IT departments are sure to face increasing demand to integrate the technology. Because of this, unified communication (UC) practices are seeing an increase in popularity.

While UC does offer a number of advantages, no system brings only positive features to the table. One of the largest obstacles that IT departments deal with is the inherent security risks that could stem from adding multiple devices to a network. Ignoring these potential pitfalls can result in large problems for companies.

A recent whitepaper from Polycom examined the major hurdles and offered some best practices for UC security.

“Unified Communications (UC) can be viewed as another set of data and protocols utilizing IP networks,” the report reads. “From a security perspective, it is very similar to other IP data services, and best practices include technologies and methods used to protect other services.”

The study goes on to talk about the importance of assessing an existing network before implementing a new system. By auditing the setup before adding technology and mobile devices to them, any problems can be addressed before a substantial investment is made. IT departments also need to take the same amount of focus they do with computer security to their mobile counterparts. 

Business communication is the backbone of any successful organization. As companies look into unified communication solutions companies in Ohio would be wise to partner with an IT consulting firm.

From our offices in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, PRO OnCall is your single-source technology consulting service, offering managed IT support, unified communications solutions and on-call IT support.