Forrester Research has a new report out that offers some insights into the communications technologies that enterprises are adopting -- and are still holding off on. There's also a provocative data point on how involved business unit executives are in Unified Communications purchases.

The respondents were asked how much influence three types of roles have in UC purchasing decisions. The biggest influencers were IT executives, not surprisingly: 26% of respondents said these folks exert final decision-making authority, while 52% reported that IT execs wield "heavy influence" on UC buying. Notably, this was very close to the numbers regarding the influence of telecom executives: 23% of respondents said telecom was the final UC decision-maker for their enterprise, and another 51% ranked telecom as a "heavy" influencer.[...]

The factor that Forrester calls out as important is the last category, "A business unit executive who works with the telecom and/or IT departments." And this is pretty noteworthy: 15% of the survey respondents said this type of exec holds final decision-making authority for UC in their enterprises, another 43% see "heavy influence" here, and 34% say such execs hold "some influence" on the UC buying decsion.