Your sales rep is stymied. He can't answer a customer's question (and therefore close the sale) until he talks with an engineer. First, he tries calling the engineer's desk phone. Then he leaves a voice mail on her mobile phone. Next, he sends an e-mail and, finally, an instant message.

Whether he finds an answer in 20 minutes or two hours, such communication delays pile up, slowing down business operations and, ultimately, hurting the bottom line. But the capabilities of IP communications have blossomed into a solution to that problem: unified communications. And solution providers who lead their customers along the path from IP networks to fully unified communications solutions will have loyal, and very profitable, relationships.

"Partners who are engaging with customers to improve business process flow and productivity have a significantly higher customer repurchase rate, a significantly higher customer retention rate, and can come back time and time again with the additional applications, integration, and the service and support that flow with them," says Richard McLeod, director of unified communications for worldwide channels at Cisco Systems.

The average organization uses 6.4 different communications devices and 4.8 communications applications, according to Sage Research , the technology practice of Chadwick Martin Bailey. Unified "messaging" is a means of tying all those devices and applications into one interface so that, for example, you can see your voice mail messages as well as your e-mail in your inbox. But unified "communications" goes further: It can show others whether you're available and which communications device you're available on.

Savings in Productivity
"If I need help from one of my engineers, I can pull up a list that shows me who's available and the best way of reaching that engineer," McLeod explains. "This introduces some exciting ways to dramatically improve productivity and communication."

In fact, employees at companies using unified communication clients with their IP networks save an average of 32 minutes a day by being able to reach colleagues on the first attempt, according to Sage Research. And the average employee using unified messaging saves 43 minutes a day from the ability to manage all e-mails, voice mails and faxes from a single inbox.

Such gains are leading to strong potential for unified communications sales. According to new research from the Telecom Intelligence Group, over the next five years revenue growth from SMB converged applications will average 47 percent annually, with particularly strong demand for unified communications.

It all starts with installing that IP PBX, solution providers say. "If we notice that their phone system is getting old, we'll try to talk them into an IP phone system," says Greg Starr, chief operating officer at integrator SEE-Comm. Upgrading to an IP-based phone system opens the door to a broader discussion of the company's business processes and how a converged network could improve them.

But it sometimes takes a while before customers comprehend the benefits of unified communications. "Most of these businesspeople see the phone as just a phone," says Ron Ferguson, executive vice president at Results Technology, which serves clients with fewer than 400 employees. "They don't understand what an IP-based network can do for them."

Assessing Customer Needs
That's one of the reasons why Results Technology conducts an assessment of its customers' IT and telecommunications infrastructure, including an ROI estimate. Says Ferguson, "We analyze their network, look at the telecommunications carrier they have and understand what their data requirements are, so we can bring their voice and data needs into a converged solution."

The assessment not only demonstrates the potential of unified communications, but also sketches out a plan by which they can gradually add such capabilities.

Companies may simply want VoIP to save money on toll calls and maintenance. "Most companies don't know anything about their PBXs, so every time their employees change offices they have to hire someone from the telecom company to reprogram their PBX," says Starr of SEEComm. "With IP phones, they can add users easily and lessen recurring maintenance costs. Some of our customers were paying $60,000 to $100,000 a year to these people."

At the other extreme, SEE-Comm is setting up full-fledged call centers for companies in its region through a relationship with IBM Global Services. That's a large and growing part of the reseller's business, Starr says. In fact, setting up call centers could be one of the biggest opportunities for solution providers, says Kathryn Korostoff, vice president of Sage Research.

SMBs probably don't realize that IP technology enables them to implement sophisticated call-center functions. Any business that has outgoing sales calls or incoming customer service calls can benefit from capturing certain information, including data on how long sales agents are on the phone, whether a call ends with a sale or how long customers are kept on hold.

Making Businesses Better
Once companies start to experience the benefits of an IP network, they are usually interested in leveraging it for more unified communications. And when they do, solution providers should be there with suggestions.

Says McLeod, "You're able to move into the business advisor role, because you're changing the conversation from 'Let's talk about telephones,' to 'Let's discuss your business operation, your business priorities and the workflow of your business, and how unified communications can have a significant impact on your business process, customer satisfaction and your profitability.' "