The forthcoming proposed tube strikes throughout the summer have been widely covered recently on news sites, and are likely to leave thousands of London commuters stranded and place a massive strain on other forms of transportation.

It isn’t just strikes however, which can effectively directly impact the productivity of an organisation; inclement weather conditions, terrorist alerts, volcanic eruptions and viral outbreaks, particularly in large urbanised areas such as London, can affect whole offices. Indeed, during the winter of 2009/2010, most employees affected by the snow were advised to stay at home, despite the economic domino effect.

It is therefore vital that all commercial and public sector enterprises familiarise themselves with the term unified communications. Many are still of the opinion that they are unable to afford an upgrade in technology at this time but are unaware of the benefits that unified communications can deliver, and the cost savings that can ultimately be made.

Unified communications is effectively a step up, technologically-speaking, from remote working facilitation. Now, rather than simply being able to dial into your office system from your home PC, you can effectively transfer your whole office – software applications, data and telephone communications, into your living room.

Once considered an unaffordable luxury to many businesses, managers are now being forced to realise that working practices are changing. Increased workloads and the demand for flexible working hours, as well as increased geographic dispersement has meant that unified communications are moving from a “nice to have “ to a “need to have”.

So what could be the turning point for some managers and business owners? What will convince them to look at unified communications as a serious option? Well, apart from the fact that it can offer substantial cost reductions, looking at an empty office with employees unable to make it into work might do the trick….