Realizing ROI with Audio Conferencing

It is common for many large organizations to spend millions of dollars a year on audio conferencing from a third-party provider. When deploying a UC solution that includes audio conferencing functionality, these organizations tend to see a significant cost savings. This cost savings is typically the largest UC ROI factor for businesses.

When deploying a UC solution like Lync, organizations can bring all of their audio conferencing to the internal UC system. Previously, organizations would pay per-minute audio conferencing charges for services that provided a dial-in conferencing bridge and audio conferencing. When this is brought in-house, those costs are reduced. The costs for audio conferencing are replaced by the costs to maintain the UC system and the inbound PSTN trunks for dial-in conferencing users. Many organizations are leveraging SIP Trunking for this functionality to even greater reduce costs. On average, organizations will reduce their dial-in conferencing usage by 85%. That 85% reduction accounts for users who are now leveraging a UC client to join a conference using IP Audio. The remaining 15% accounts for users who are still dialing in to the audio conference through the PSTN.

When the RIO of a UC solution is being evaluated, it is important to not completely remove audio conferencing costs from the total cost of ownership (TCO). A small portion of the costs that are removed are replaced by new costs. This can include PSTN trunks, PSTN gateways, bandwidth, and additional server hardware if needed. Additionally, many organizations require the use of a third-party audio bridge for advanced conferencing scenarios. This functionality is often referred to as managed conferencing. These scenarios include operator-assisted meetings, or very large audio conferences with more than 1,000 participants.