NEW YORK -- New research commissioned by Dimension Data reveals that unified communications is believed to be as secure as other technologies in the workplace. However, most end-users users remain unaware of the potential risks they could be exposing their organizations to.

The research shows that 52% of IT users perceive unified communications to be as secure as most other information and communication technologies, while IT managers were more cautious, with 42% believing it was as secure.

And while end-users attribute similar levels of risk to all converged communications technologies, IT managers are more concerned with technologies that are harder to control – such as instant messaging (IM), enterprise mobility and PDAs.

“IT managers rated instant messaging (IM) as having the highest risk, probably because of the high levels of uncontrolled public IM already prevalent in corporate environments,” said Gavin Hill, global business development manager for unified communications at Dimension Data. “The research indicates that 67% of end-users surveyed use IM at home and work, but only 35% of companies formally offer this as a corporate tool today.

“While enterprise-grade tools are available, many organizations still allow employees to use public tools in the environment. Placing unified communications technologies in the hands of end-users who are unaware of the risks and corporate policies could result in the benefits being offset by the increased risk and security threats in the corporate environment.”

Dimension Data