How to make a business case for unified communications
Making a business case for unified communications isn't the same as deciding on a PBX. ROI, for example, isn't as important. But training is. Here is what you should focus on.
Building a business case for unified communications, or UC, may seem simple, but it's a long way from buying legacy technologies like PBX or video conferencing. For one thing, UC is more software than hardware; in addition, there has been a strong shift from premises-based UC to cloud-based delivery. More importantly, UC is an integrated approach that affects everyone in the organization, and that's quite different from buying point products, like phone systems.
Today, UC is best understood as a shared software platform rather than a collection of standalone communications tools.
Consequently, IT decision-makers must view UC as more than a transactional purchase. In most organizations, that responsibility falls to IT leaders who must balance UX, operational complexity and long-term platform governance.
UC's productivity value is just one consideration; the business case must also reflect IT's understanding of how UC will affect various stakeholders, including top management and end users across the organization. That broader impact is what makes the business case for UC fundamentally different from past communications investments. The business case, then, is less about selecting tools and more about defining how communications will be standardized, supported and sustained across the organization.
Here are five important points to keep in mind when considering UC, from vendor evaluation to operational deployment.
1. Measure the cost savings and ROI
This is the right starting point, but expectations must be carefully set. UC is typically delivered as software, often as a service, rather than as a dedicated hardware product, so conventional ROI metrics associated with phone systems won’t tell the whole story. Enterprises are often deploying UC as a service (UCaaS) rather than premises-based UC, and since this variation uses an on-demand subscription model, total cost of ownership might be a better financial metric.
For many organizations, UC spending now resembles other enterprise software subscriptions, where value is realized over time through adoption and use. For IT leaders, this shifts the conversation from upfront justification to ongoing value realization.
Yet, cost savings should not be a primary driver for the business case. That's not the main benefit for UC, although some costs will fall. For example, departments will no longer have to pay for their own conferencing or video services. With UC, that duplication can be minimized by having everyone running off a common platform, resulting in some savings. IT overheads will also be reduced, since there would be no reason to support duplicated applications or to provide the support needed to provision UC. With UCaaS, most of this becomes cloud-based, reducing the need for costly IT support resources.
Unified communications delivers operational, productivity and IT management benefits across the organization.
2. Focus on the right metrics
When measuring UC's overall business value, use and performance metrics are a better indicator than financial metrics. Ultimately, the success of UC depends on end-user adoption, so measuring usage will be critical. IT can easily monitor usage patterns, not just for UC overall, but also for specific applications -- among them conferencing, messaging, video, voice applications and mobile UC.
Without consistent use across teams, even well-designed UC platforms struggle to deliver measurable business value. That makes adoption not just a user issue, but a leadership concern tied to rollout planning, enablement, and internal advocacy.
For many, meetings are onerous, but UC removes a lot of that friction.
The basic goal is improved productivity. Unfortunately, productivity is difficult to measure, so IT will be challenged to show metrics related to UC's efficacy. While the industry continues to refine meaningful productivity metrics, there are some basic areas IT can measure that serve as a good proxy. As a result, many organizations rely on operational indicators rather than attempting to calculate productivity gains directly.
Consider meetings. For many, meetings are onerous, but UC removes a lot of that friction. Based on the notion that people will be more productive if meetings are more effective, IT will want to track UC's impact on meetings:
how often meetings occur
how long meetings are
how many attendees there are
Communications is another area. Are workers connecting with one another? Key indicators would be a lower incidence of calls going to voicemail and even less usage of email. Over time, these shifts can signal whether UC is becoming the default way employees communicate.
3. Plan for UC implementation challenges
Since UC may be new to some organizations, the business case for unified communications needs to reflect how IT can implement and deploy it with the least amount of disruption. Which UC approach to use will largely be driven by how much change, if any, IT wants to make to the existing network infrastructure. There may be good reasons to keep existing phone systems or replace them as part of the UC investment.
IT will also need to make a realistic assessment of how much of the deployment it will be able to manage. If the deployment's too complex, UCaaS and the cloud will be a better option than a premises-based approach. The chosen deployment model should align with the organization's tolerance for change and internal operational capacity. Those considerations often determine whether UC becomes a stabilizing platform or an ongoing source of friction.
In addition to these decisions, broader implementation challenges must be considered. Since UC will become the hub for collaboration activity, extensive integration with other systems and software will be required -- among them phone systems, business software, email platforms, video endpoints and CRM software.
Mobile integration is another key point, particularly since smartphones have become a primary productivity tool. Spanning this will be the need to implement UC securely, especially across distributed and mobile work environments, where network access must be secured consistently.
4. Ensure that UC benefits are delivered
If the business case for unified communications is based on the promise of improved productivity, then demonstrating how that promise has been fulfilled is the next step. A key benefit is more streamlined communications and processes for teamwork. A prime indicator would be a reduction in the use of overlapping third-party applications, particularly consumer-grade ones.
The more extensively UC can support all these needs, the less the need for shadow IT, and that's a benefit IT will surely welcome. What's more, by integrating applications on a common platform, IT's visibility across the network will increase. That will let IT optimize the use of network resources and maintain security.
This follow-through is essential if UC is to be viewed as a business platform rather than a collection of features. Reduced tool sprawl also improves IT's ability to govern usage and manage risk. Over time, this credibility shapes how the organization views IT’s ability to lead broader platform initiatives.
5. Follow through with training
This point remains important because the business case for UC has to be supported on an ongoing basis. Thanks to new capabilities and applications, UC will keep evolving, and with that, the business value will grow -- but only if employees can keep pace. This won't be an issue for tech-savvy workers. But UC is for everyone, and others will need training for the benefits to accrue organization wide. Training should be treated as an ongoing enablement effort rather than a one-time rollout activity.
IT does not normally take on this role, but to support the business case for unified communications, new capabilities will be needed on this front. This could take the form of online tutorials, FAQs, workshops or individual training. Another approach is gamification -- making UC easier to engage with and introducing some friendly competition. Whatever approach taken for training, the objective should be to show employees that UC is easy to use. Once they become familiar with UC's benefits, they should see how it's a better way to work compared to what they were doing before.
When employees understand how UC supports their daily work, adoption becomes self-sustaining and the business case reinforces itself. In that sense, a successful UC business case becomes a foundation for future collaboration and platform decisions.
Editor's note: This article was updated in February 2026 to improve the reader experience.
Jon Arnold is principal of J Arnold & Associates, an independent analyst providing thought leadership and go-to-market counsel with a focus on the business-level effect of communications technology on digital transformation.
