1/16/2006 -- IPC is not just for inter-process communications anymore. In fact, according to a new Cisco-commissioned study, businesses of all sizes can derive substantial ROI from implementing IP Communications (IPC).

The Cisco-sponsored study, which was conducted by consultancy Sage Research, looked at cost savings, improved productivity and increased revenues as contributors to ROI. It found that almost 60 percent of IPC-enabled enterprises cut costs, in large part by decreasing their reliance on outside IT vendors. What's more, IPC makes employees more productive: Workers save an average of 3.9 hours per week by exploiting IPC-powered telephony features.

IPC can make IT staff more productive, too. IT pros save about 1.5 hours per user move compared to circuit-switched phones.

"More than half of enterprise survey respondents indicated an average productivity gain of nearly four hours per week per employee because of an increased use of telephony features such as collaborative conferencing, unified messaging and find-me style messaging," said Sage president Kathryn Korostoff in a statement. "In a company where a mere 100 employees experienced this gain, this would extrapolate to 2,000 hours per year in additional productivity."

Cisco officials, for their part, say the age of pervasive IPC could be at hand. Of course, Cisco -- which markets a more or less complete IP telephony stack -- also has a dog in the IPC race. "A few years ago, businesses would not have considered using a single network to carry both voice and data," said Don Proctor, senior vice president of Cisco's Voice Technology Group, in a statement. "IPC was in its infancy. As a result, companies continued to invest in two separate network infrastructures and two staffs with different skill sets. Today, IPC is mature, and the ROI numbers speak for themselves. These factors are escalating IPC adoption dramatically." -Stephen Swoyer