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When it comes to keeping everyone in a company working together towards the same goal, those employees need to be able to communicate effectively with each other. A number of cloud-based solutions exist to help workers collaborate, though some can turn out to be much more expensive than others.

A new Osterman Research report called “Taking a Strategic Approach to Unified Communications (News - Alert)” outlines how enterprises can lower costs when it comes to unified communications. It claims that by using a multi-vendor solution such as the combination of Google (News - Alert) Apps and Esnatech’s Office-LinX offering, enterprises can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. This is compared with using a single-vendor solution like Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync. The savings largely come through reductions in IT and telephony costs.

The report suggests that organizations with 1,000 users can save up to $246 per user every year by using the Google Apps/Office-LinX combination ahead of on-premise solutions like Lync.

Such an approach can provide savings across a number of areas, says Osterman. For instance, there are lower licensing fees, labor and hardware costs. Power costs dip, along with private branch exchange (PBX) replacement costs by extending the life of the PBX solution.

The report also suggests that enterprises will not need to purchase dedicated mobile devices for employees, since the Google Apps/Esnatech combination is operable on most smartphone operating systems.

“An open, multi-vendor approach allows enterprises to re-use their existing PBXs and other systems, and provides the necessary flexibility to allow organizations to adopt a wide variety of less expensive, on-premise and cloud-based applications,” said Michael Osterman, president of Osterman. “Open approaches are typically less expensive than single vendor solutions and offer much lower total cost of ownership initially and over the long term.”

Office-LinX has received some recognition throughout the industry, with TMC (News - Alert) awarding the product its 2011 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award. Meanwhile, Esnatech is partnering with KnoahSoft (News - Alert) to build a suite of advanced unified communications and contact center tools for North American enterprises.