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In this issue: Unified Communications: |
April 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The business case for Unified Communications (UC) – Q&A with collaboration solutions expert Sean DenomeyThis month Impact joined Sean Denomey, General Manager of Unified Communications and Collaboration Solutions at Bell, to discuss the advantages of unified communications, a new technology groundswell that is making rapid inroads in the enterprise. Hear from Sean how UC reduces latency by showing colleagues’ availability, which lets you choose the best way to communicate at any moment. And with the click of a mouse, employees can move from instant messenger to telephone to video conversation. Impact: Hi Sean, and thanks for joining us. Let’s start with a quick rundown on UC. What is it and where did it come from? SD: The term unified communications is new, but its precursors have been around for some time, as delivering fax messages to email inboxes and integrating voice mail with email goes back fifteen years. UC is an emerging method of integrating communications tools into one solution. It’s about making communication simpler, more efficient and more effective. Impact: The perception is that UC is mostly about voice. What other functionalities are we seeing currently? SD: Voice is key, but when you combine it with email, instant messenger (IM) and video, it enables a new level of communication. For some time now we’ve seen IM used in the business world for more rapid communication. Now add video via Webcam or cell phone and you’re into a richer form of communication. This is starting to play a larger role in reducing costs of travel and creating an in-person experience. Now that we have these richer tools, it’s a matter of getting them to work together. But I believe the real key to getting the most from these solutions is something called presence: technology that shows a colleague’s availability. Presence is key to reducing latency because it shows you how best to communicate. If a colleague is in a meeting, you can move on to another person who can help you immediately. If they are free, you can click on their contact profile and initiate an IM session. A click of the mouse upgrades that to a phone call, and another click to a video session. Impact: UC reduces latency because communications reach you more directly. Is this the core benefit of the technology? SD: Yes, reducing human latency in communication is the core deliverable. If you have to leave a voice mail for someone, you have failed to communicate effectively because your goal was to pick up the phone and have a conversation. UC cuts down on the time it takes to communicate and process work, both of which provide huge efficiency gains. But there are other benefits that come along with UC that drive hard cost reductions in telephony, real estate and elsewhere. Impact: That sounds pretty good. But does it justify the cost of moving to UC and what exactly is involved? SD: Every case is unique. The approach that we’ve seen businesses taking is to look at their goals and then at what they already have in terms of technology. What kind of benefit will they get from integrating what they already have versus adding new applications or doing nothing at all? A roadmap detailing the desired end state and the steps needed to get there help to build a business case for UC. Few businesses jump in feet first. They typically start with a small proof of concept and expand that to a pilot. From the pilot you get a better understanding of your unique challenges and the strength of the business case. The bulk of the work often involves configuring and integrating technologies that organizations already have with new software or hardware components that make it all fit well together. Keep in mind that different departments have different needs, so it may make better sense for certain departments to move ahead with UC first. And I should emphasize that training is very important. We’ve seen cases where companies deploy new features that are not used because personnel don’t know enough about them. Impact: Google recently unveiled a new voice integration offering. How long do you think it will be before UC becomes widespread in the business world? SD: So far UC has made sense for a lot of companies. About three quarters of global CIOs say they are already using UC or will deploy it in the next 12 months, so we’re just about there already. In terms of Google’s offering, they have done their usual great job of making things simple by abstracting technical details. This drives usage and adoption. There is no doubt that it will pique the interest of small to medium businesses (SMBs). But solutions at the enterprise level are complex and companies typically wait for the technology to prove itself. There are also security, availability and privacy concerns. But you can be sure that Google’s product will influence other vendors as well. Impact: Where is UC headed in five or ten years – what do you see beyond the integration of communication and the concept of presence? SD: It won’t be long before we are being contacted by the most efficient means available. And not just by people. Today we’re fairly comfortable with automated email and voice mail reminders. Within the next three to five years, intelligent applications will make use of presence-based UC to begin driving the communication stream. Where you indicate within a document that you need expert advice or approval, the application itself will seek it out. And if it’s been waiting too long, it will find an alternate source of input or approval. In a sense, your work itself will minimize latency by making sure that it meets milestones and timelines. It’s a great step forward in terms of efficiency: driving business workflow to completion by taking advantage of the whole workforce. Impact: That’s very exciting. Is there anything else in the near future for UC? SD: Presence will also become more sophisticated. The next step in its evolution is context – who and where you are: your skills, expertise, body of work, location in the world, the device you’re using, even bandwidth. All of these factors will keep people from taking the time to make a connection that might fail. Beyond that, we will likely progress to intent. Wouldn’t it be great if you could tell what a caller wants to discuss before you pick up the phone? Emails have subject lines, so why not phone calls? Impact: Can you give us an example of UC from the real world? SD: Sure. We have a client in the insurance business that has rolled out a complete IP telephony infrastructure. The next step was to integrate that infrastructure with desktop UC productivity tools. We rolled out an application that shows colleagues’ presence and allows users to initiate a voice call from the desktop. It uses the existing PBX infrastructure. Employees can use their regular handset or the computer soft phone and their existing contact list. At the click of a mouse, you can initiate a call to any contact with the knowledge that they are available at the other end. You don’t spend time leaving voice mail and they don’t spend time retrieving it and calling you back. Impact: If you could leave us with one thought about UC, what would that be? SD: In a recession, UC can enable real hard dollar savings and allows you to position yourself better against the competition because you can move more quickly. You create a situation where fewer people can do more in the same amount of time: a better ROI with minimal investment and using existing resources. This was the case with our insurance client. Bell’s Professional Services teams can help your organization at any stage of unified communications implementation: requirement gathering, setting priorities, making the business case and deploying an integrated solution that meets your communication needs. Want to learn more? You can download our tool, 6 tips for making the case for UC. For more in-depth information on how unified communications solutions from Bell can help your business, contact your Bell representative or click here to have a Bell representative contact you. About Sean Denomey ... How to assess your unified communications (UC) needsIncreasingly, leading enterprises are discovering that UC can substantially reduce the bottom line, as well as improve customer service, increase employee satisfaction, and enable better collaboration. Answering the questions in this download tool will help you discover the extent to which UC can help your organizations. ... 6 tips for making the case for UCAre you looking to reap the benefits of UC? If so you aren’t alone: roughly three quarters of Enterprise CIOs either have already implemented or plan to roll out UC in the next 12 months. Implementing UC saves money, improves efficiency and bolsters quality of work. But making the business case can be challenging. Find out what you need to get buy-in with the six points outlined in this checklist. ... Save time, increase efficiency with Unified CommunicationsA letter from the executive office
When you add them up, the effects of human latency act as a significant barrier to efficiency. Reducing those missed connections can have a surprisingly powerful positive effect on cost, efficiency, and even employee satisfaction. Unified Communications (UC) is driving down human latency in business by combining communications tools to make interactions simpler, more transparent and more effective. This is not a new concept: fax-to-email programs have been around for some time. Today, if you’re in the middle of an instant messenger chat you can upgrade to a telephone call or a desktop video session with the click of a mouse. But the solutions we are currently seeing go far beyond synchronizing communications tools. UC solutions now save even more time by integrating the concept of presence, whereby colleagues can tell if you’re currently on the phone or caught up in a meeting. While it’s still an emerging technology, it is clear that UC is here to stay: the majority of enterprises have either implemented a UC solution or plan to within 12 months. When you see the numbers, it makes sense. Have a look at our UC cost savings summary to see the hard savings potential, from reduced real estate requirements to less frequent travel and significant reductions in the cost of telephony. And if the UC story is good now, our UC expert Sean Denomey tells us that it will only get better. He anticipates the day, for example, when applications themselves will strive to meet deadlines by automatically soliciting expert input or approval. Take an in-depth look at current and future views in this month’s Q&A with Sean, or get set to make your own case for UC implementation with our top 6 tips. Bell is a leader in the field of UC. We have helped organizations large and small at all stages of the UC process – from needs assessments to creating implementation roadmaps and the technology rollout itself. To find out how UC can apply to your organization, or for assistance at any point along the road to UC, contact us today for an overview or an audit of your environment. As always, we welcome your feedback on the tools and resources we offer you in Impact and on any other aspect of our services. Best regards, Stéphane Boisvert President, Bell Enterprise ... Generate rapid cost savings with UCLooking to save costs? Our experience in working with clients has shown that, in typical cases, Unified Communications could help you:
To learn more For help in creating a business case and roadmap for UC or for more information on how enterprise telephony solutions from Bell can help your business, contact your Bell representative or have a Bell representative contact you. |
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An unanswered email, work awaiting approval or voice mail that requires a response – these are the little things that increase the time it takes to get the job done.