Industry research from Gartner and Nemertes consistently shows that a majority of unified communication (UC) rollouts underperform against expectations—often cited as roughly 70% failing to meet their goals. Companies invest heavily in the promise of seamless collaboration, fewer silos, and stronger productivity, yet too often adoption lags, employees grow frustrated, and executives question whether the investment was worth it. This is a reality many CIOs and IT Directors know all too well.

The critical question becomes: why do these platforms fail, and more importantly, how can you fix them?

Many companies have adopted a new breed of unified communications solutions like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Workspace, and others. The reasons are straightforward – these platforms put all the necessary forms of collaboration and communication under one roof with excellent integration. Voice, messaging, videoconferencing, online meetings, document sharing, and mobile applications are all within a common interface with one login credential and strong administrative features for the organization.

Unified communications (UC) solutions make digital transformation possible in the workplace. At its core, UC requires cloud-hosted software that supports voice-over-IP telephony, audio and video conferencing, and messaging. More robust platforms like Microsoft Teams also support collaboration and information sharing tools like digital whiteboarding, file sharing, and co-authoring and editing. 

Cloud-based UC platforms make it possible for hybrid workforces to work anywhere, on any device they feel most comfortable using. And when digital communication and collaboration tools are integrated with office hardware, UC solutions create user-friendly, standardized meeting room experiences across all meeting spaces in an organization.

These days huddle rooms are the rule rather than the exception, and for good reason. Huddle rooms help mitigate one of the main downsides of open floor plans—noise and distractions—so employees can focus on productive collaboration. Huddle rooms also provide flexibility and are often a more practical use of space than large, infrequently used conference rooms. However, huddle rooms are only as good as the audiovisual technology they are equipped with. While most huddle rooms include some standard components—a display, a camera, a microphone, a control system, as well as collaboration software and network access—the quality of those components can make or break your huddle room. And their cost can make or break your budget.