That’s one of the many questions asked by Fujitsu in a survey-turned-contest-turned-infographic. Most businesses are in the early stages of implementing UC&C (Unified Communications & Collaboration), but at the same time these companies expect the entire infrastructure to be laid out and ready to be used on a regular basis in no less than three years.

The Japanese IT company wanted to determine the state of UC&C today by issuing a game-show-inspired set of questions to a bunch of companies big and small. The purpose was to help managers see beyond the technical hurdles and into the advantages of simplified communications and enhanced collaboration. Right off the bat I can tell you that VoipNow & Hubgets – our most prominent products – are the perfect answer to Fujitsu’s entire pop quiz.

Which side of the fence are you on?

The first round of questions deals with the state at which each company is from a communication and collaboration standpoint. Asked how highly they valued it, 50% said extremely high, while 40% said very highly. 8% said somewhat while the remaining 2% didn’t care much for the concept. For UC&C providers, this is very good news.

As far as implementation goes, 36% are in the early planning stages, 26% executing a pilot scheme of some kind, 22% report that full implementation is underway, 9% are not implementing at the moment, and only 7% claim their UC&C infrastructure is in full swing. However, the numbers were reversed for the next question – where do you expect to be in 3 years? As many as 40% of the surveyed companies expect UC&C to be fully implemented in their organization.

Security remains a big misconception surrounding UC&C

Data security remains the #1 concern when it comes to the expected challenges, followed by individual IT requirements, the necessity to make new investments, and virtual teams. Fujitsu actually advises these companies to conduct a thorough workflow analysis to establish where UC&C would be leveraged the most and look at those areas only.

As we noted time and time again, security is a non-issue for UC as long as the IT department responsible with maintaining it is competent. In fact, if your IT admins aren’t well versed in security matters, the company faces the same risks with or without unified communications solutions deployed.

65% say that members of Generation Y (those born between 1980 – 2000) in their organization have only moderately accelerated communication & collaboration enhancements, while 14% say Gen Y has deeply influenced this area of their business. 4% actually said Gen Y had “retarded” the concept.

Choosing not to waste time will result in better teamwork, faster decisions, a stronger connection with peers and the outside world, and – the Holy Graal of any business – reduced costs, according to Fujitsu. Check out the full infographic below.