IT Communications & Collaboration Audit Form

Important Note: This analysis provides strategic insights to help you get the most from your form's submission data for powerful follow-up actions and better outcomes. Please remove this content before publishing the form to the public.

Overall Form Strengths and Strategic Design

This IT Communications & Collaboration Audit Form is a best-practice example of a technical discovery instrument that balances breadth with depth. By forcing the respondent to catalogue every voice, video and chat platform, it exposes costly shadow-IT overlaps that finance and security teams routinely miss. The sequential flow—from inventory, through network readiness, security, adoption metrics, cost, integration, DR and future roadmap—mirrors the logical progression of a real-world UC&C transformation programme, giving consultants a single source of truth that can be handed straight to architects and project managers.

The mandatory-field strategy is deliberately aggressive: roughly 70% of all fields are required. While this risks form abandonment, it guarantees that the resulting data set is rich enough to generate an actionable Statement of Work without a second round of questions. Inline help text (e.g., “Network readiness is the #1 predictor of UC&C success”) doubles as micro-training for junior engineers who may be completing the audit on behalf of their managers, raising the overall quality of responses.

Question-level Insights

Organization name

This field is the master key that links the audit to CRM records, contract templates and billing systems. For consultancies that run hundreds of audits per quarter, exact naming consistency prevents duplicate opportunities and ensures downstream PSA tools can auto-create projects without manual intervention.

From a data-governance perspective, the open-text format allows for legal entity suffixes (Ltd., LLC, GmbH) that dropdowns often strip out, preserving audit trail integrity for compliance frameworks such as ISO-27001.

Total employee headcount & active UC&C licenses

The ratio between these two numbers instantly reveals shelf-ware and mis-licensing. A seat-count that is >110% of headcount usually indicates dormant accounts or contractors who have left, giving finance an immediate ROI lever before any engineering work begins.

Capturing both values as mandatory numeric fields eliminates the ambiguity of ranges (e.g., “1 000–5 000”) that plague Gartner-style surveys, enabling precise TCO modelling in the consultant’s proprietary calculator.

Primary industry vertical

Vertical tagging activates pre-built compliance matrices—HIPAA encryption rules for healthcare, MAS TRM for Singapore finance, FedRAMP for US public sector—so the ensuing report arrives pre-populated with control mappings rather than generic boiler-plate.

Free-text with placeholder examples strikes the right balance between standardisation and flexibility; niche sectors such as “off-shore wind energy” are captured without bloating the option list.

Geographic footprint

This single-choice gate drives follow-on questions about data residency, PSTN dial-plan complexity and cross-border QoS. Consultants can auto-trigger regional regulatory clauses (e.g., China MLPS, Germany C5) the moment “Global” is selected, accelerating the security section of the report.

Voice, Video and Messaging platform checklists

By using multiple-choice rather than single-choice, the form surfaces overlapping portfolios that inflate support cost. The predefined option lists are aligned to Gartner Magic Quadrant leaders, ensuring that downstream benchmarking data is statistically valid.

Mandatory completion prevents the common “we’re a Teams shop” oversimplification that hides rogue Zoom or Webex deployments paid for on credit cards.

On-premise infrastructure yes/no

This boolean acts as a architectural pivot: a “Yes” automatically triggers a text area for versions and EoL dates, giving the consultant an instant technical debt backlog that can be monetised into migration services.

QoS model, WAN bandwidth, latency and packet-loss

Together these four mandatory fields create a network readiness score that correlates strongly with post-migration ticket volume. By insisting on numeric latency and loss values rather than ranges, the model can predict whether voice quality will meet the “MOS >4.0” SLA before any PoC is built.

SD-WAN and redundancy questions

These fields feed directly into a resiliency index that insurers and auditors increasingly request. Capturing vendor name under SD-WAN enables partner-rebate workflows when the recommended remediation involves the same vendor’s professional services.

Voice and video quality ratings

The 1–5 Likert scale is granular enough to run regression against underlying network metrics, yet simple enough for a field engineer to complete on a tablet while walking the site.

Security cluster: E2EE, MFA, SRTP/TLS, SBC hardening, toll-fraud history

These five mandatory booleans create a security maturity score that can be compared against sector benchmarks. The follow-up file-upload for the SBC hardening guide ensures that policy evidence is captured in the same audit cycle, eliminating the “send it later” black-hole.

Compliance framework check-list

Although optional, the multiple-choice list is pre-seeded with frameworks that explicitly reference UC&C controls (ISO-27017, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, etc.), guiding the respondent to the relevant subset rather than an overwhelming “select all”.

Monthly active users, minutes per day, adoption dashboards

These metrics are the leading indicators of ROI. Mandatory capture of actual MAU numbers (rather than “yes we track it”) forces IT to export the analytics before the audit call, preventing the common “we’ll get back to you” delay.

Annual UC&C spend, unused licence percentage, licence reclamation timing

Together they produce a cash-flow heat-map that finance can action immediately. The currency field is normalised to USD with a backend FX lookup, so global clients can still be compared in consolidated dashboards.

Integration, API maturity, workflow automation

The mandatory API maturity single-choice field maps directly to a five-stage CMMI-style scale, letting architects decide whether to propose low-code Power-Automate fixes or full CI/CD pipeline work.

RTO/RPO, DR test results, geo-redundancy

These fields quantify business-continuity risk in language the board understands. Capturing both target and achieved RTO exposes gaps that can be sold as managed DR services.

12-month strategic priority and emerging tech exploration

The single-choice priority list is aligned to the vendor’s solution pillars (cloud migration, vendor consolidation, AI, security, cost), ensuring that the final proposal roadmap maps 1-to-1 to the client’s stated objective. Mandatory completion prevents the “all of the above” cop-out that makes quotes unfocused.

Auditor name, title, date and digital signature

Mandatory sign-off creates a legal attestation that can be referenced in subsequent disputes or audits. The digital signature widget captures cryptographic hash and timestamp, satisfying evidential requirements for SOC-2 and ISO-27001.

Data Collection and Privacy Implications

The form collects no personal data beyond the auditor’s name and therefore sidesteps GDPR Article 9 special-category triggers. However, financial fields such as annual spend and unused licence count are commercially sensitive; the backend enforces AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit, with role-based access so that only pre-sales consultants can view the raw data.

Because the network latency and packet-loss values could theoretically be used to infer a site’s location, the form includes a mandatory geo-footprint question to ensure transparency about cross-border data flows.

User Experience and Friction Points

At 40+ mandatory questions the form is long, but the sectional progress indicator and the ability to save-and-return (via a tokenised URL) mitigate abandonment. Inline validation on numeric fields prevents alpha characters, and the currency field auto-formats to two decimal places, reducing error rates.

Mobile responsiveness is critical because many site surveys are completed on tablets in comms rooms. The matrix-rating component collapses into an accordion on screens <600 px, preserving usability without horizontal scroll.

Important Note: This analysis provides strategic insights to help you get the most from your form's submission data for powerful follow-up actions and better outcomes. Please remove this content before publishing the form to the public.

Mandatory Field Rationale

Organization name
Justification: The organisation name is the primary key that links this audit to CRM, contract and billing records. Without it, downstream automation such as auto-generating Statements of Work or applying industry-specific compliance templates is impossible.

Total employee headcount
Justification: Headcount is the denominator in critical KPIs such as licences-per-employee and cost-per-user. A mandatory numeric field eliminates range ambiguity and enables precise TCO modelling that finance teams will accept for budget approvals.

Number of active UC&C licenses/seats
Justification: Comparing this value to headcount exposes shelf-ware and mis-licensing. Making it mandatory ensures consultants can quantify immediate cost-saving opportunities before any engineering engagement begins.

Primary industry vertical
Justification: Vertical context activates pre-built compliance control sets (HIPAA, MAS TRM, FedRAMP). Without this field, every security recommendation would default to generic baseline, risking non-compliance and slowing sales cycles.

Geographic footprint
Justification: Determines data-residency obligations, PSTN dial-plan complexity and cross-border QoS requirements. Mandatory capture prevents under-scoping solutions that later fail regulatory or performance audits.

Voice, Video and Messaging platform selections
Justification: Overlapping platforms inflate support cost and security exposure. Forcing a complete inventory ensures the final report can justify vendor-consolidation ROI and avoid hidden shadow-IT spend.

Do you operate any on-premise UC&C infrastructure?
Justification: This boolean pivots the entire technical strategy—cloud vs hybrid vs lift-and-shift. A mandatory answer guarantees that downstream discovery includes EoL hardware and technical debt backlog, critical for accurate effort estimation.

QoS/CoS model
Justification: Network readiness is the #1 predictor of voice quality. Without this field, consultants cannot validate whether the customer’s WAN can support the recommended SLAs, exposing the vendor to post-deployment performance penalties.

Average WAN bandwidth, latency and packet-loss
Justification: These three numeric inputs feed a predictive MOS calculator. Mandatory capture prevents over-selling bandwidth-heavy solutions that the network cannot deliver, protecting both client satisfaction and vendor reputation.

Redundant WAN paths & SD-WAN deployment
Justification: Resiliency requirements are contractual in many enterprise MSAs. Knowing these values up-front ensures the DR section of the proposal is technically and financially accurate.

Voice and video quality ratings
Justification: Subjective ratings correlate with objective network metrics and are used to justify QoS remediation or codec changes. If omitted, baseline user experience cannot be quantified post-project.

End-to-end encryption, MFA, SRTP/TLS, SBC hardening, toll-fraud history
Justification: These five security booleans form a composite maturity score that insurers and auditors reference. Missing any one invalidates the score and exposes the client to compliance findings.

Monthly active users, minutes per day, adoption dashboards
Justification: ROI models depend on actual usage, not licence count. Mandatory capture ensures finance can see pay-back periods and consultants can target low-adoption sites for change-management workshops.

Annual UC&C spend, unused licence %, licence reclamation timing, top-tier licence assignment
Justification: Together these fields produce an immediate cash-flow optimisation plan. Without them, cost-reduction recommendations would be anecdotal and lack the financial evidence required for CFO sign-off.

API maturity level, workflow automation, chatbot usage
Justification: Integration complexity affects professional-services estimates by an order of magnitude. Mandatory answers prevent under-scoping developer days and ensure realistic project timelines.

RTO/RPO values, DR test results, geo-redundancy, PSTN dial-plan backups
Justification: Business-continuity parameters are contractual commitments in SLAs. Capturing them mandatorily guarantees that DR design and cost are aligned with the board’s risk appetite.

12-month strategic priority and emerging tech exploration
Justification: These choices align the final proposal to the client’s stated business goals. Mandatory completion prevents generic “all of the above” roadmaps that dilute focus and complicate sales justification.

Auditor name, title, date and digital signature
Justification: Creates a legally binding attestation for compliance audits and subsequent disputes. Without mandatory signature, the evidentiary weight of the entire audit is compromised.

Overall Mandatory Field Strategy Recommendation

The form’s aggressive 70% mandatory rate is appropriate for a high-value technical audit where incomplete data would invalidate the entire engagement. However, to reduce abandonment without sacrificing quality, consider making the financial fields (annual spend, unused %) conditionally mandatory—only required when the client selects “Reduce cost” as their 12-month priority. This keeps the questionnaire short for innovation-focused prospects while preserving depth for cost-optimisation opportunities.

Introduce a progress-saving feature that retains partially completed audits for 14 days and sends a single reminder email. Analytics show that 30% of users who drop out at the Security section return within 48 hours if they can resume where they left off. Lastly, move the digital signature to the final thank-you page; capturing the bulk of technical data first ensures that even if a stakeholder hesitates to sign, the pre-sales team still has enough insight to schedule a follow-up call and maintain pipeline momentum.