An article I wrote was published on the CIOupdate.com website recently on the topic of planning for Unified Communications in your organization, I've included a link and the text of the original (longer) version of the article for those who are interested in reading it.
http://www.cioupdate.com/trends/article.php/3758556
Ironically, the explosion of new communication tools over the past decade has made collaboration in large enterprises more difficult than it needs to be. Whilst the number of options for communication has increased, so has the need for interaction among geographically distributed teams, partners and suppliers. These groups typically use a variety of communication channels to exchange information, placing greater demands on the IT organization and making it difficult to know the best way to reach someone at a given time.
Managing diverse systems for communication such as telephony, instant messaging, e-mail has strained many IT departments, whom are often forced to make a range of equipment in different countries work together. Additionally, more and more people, especially younger recruits, have come to expect the same capabilities at work that they now use at home. This places extra burden on IT staff to keep up with user demands as well as security concerns posed by these emerging technologies. The challenge is both technological and strategic. Clearly, users need access to the right tools, however to truly transform organizational performance these tools and systems must be integrated within the context of the company’s strategic business objectives.
Unified communications allows people to collaborate seamlessly, regardless of location or device. It accomplishes this by combining the functionalities organizations use today—e-mail messaging, collaborative Web sites and conference calling— with presence, instant messaging and software-powered voice over IP (VoIP). With the overall result providing a foundation for enhanced competitiveness in the global marketplace, improved user productivity, significant cost reduction and new business value opportunities.
Situation
To stay ahead of global competitors, organizations have to respond ever faster to new business challenges and shifting priorities. Most global companies struggle with growth in part because the technology they use for communications is fragmented and doesn’t work together to span language barriers and time zones.
Avanade has collaborated with more than 50 global customers to unify their communication systems, helping them communicate with colleagues in multiple locations. One such company, a Business Consulting firm with operations worldwide, was expanding rapidly and adding new services, however its ability to communicate and share information internally was impeding its continued growth.
With a distributed global workforce our customer was challenged by a series of fragmented communications systems which were not adequately meeting the changing business needs of their highly mobile workforce and engaged Avanade to assist in defining and executing against their stated business goals.
Solution
The strategic Unified Communications solution Avanade implemented with this Global Business consulting company included the Office Communications Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 technologies, which were then integrated with their existing information portals and line of business systems.
Initial results have shown a dramatic increase in productivity, an ability to find critical information faster and a reduction in roadblocks to decision-making. In addition to the productivity benefits, our customer has seen a shift in the way their employees communicate and collaborate – resulting in reduced telephony and external conferencing costs as a result of utilizing their internally provided Unified Communications infrastructure.
Improved Flexibility Equals Enhanced Competitiveness
Using technology that’s available today, businesses can evolve their business strategy and processes to take advantage of their existing technology investments and gain competitive advantage. Better communication and collaboration leads to process efficiencies, faster innovation and faster decisions based on better information.
Additionally, with unified communications, employees don’t have to commute on a daily basis. It gives organizations the flexibility to have a distributed work force, get drivers off the road, and make employees at home just as productive as those in the office.
Reduce Costs
In addition to providing process efficiencies and competitive advantage, unified communications can also deliver bottom-line savings. With many employees traveling or working onsite at customer locations, conference calling for internal meetings is critical for organizations. A straightforward cost saving can be achieved by moving your internal conference calls through Office Communications Server 2007, resulting in savings of thousands of dollars a month in some instances.
Companies implementing unified communications also see savings from simplifying multi-vendor solutions, reducing software licensing fees, eliminating video conferencing hardware and simplifying IT management. For example, the integration of Office Communications Server 2007 with other Windows-based software means that any issues with voice communications can be handled centrally.
Open the door to new business value opportunities
In increasingly competitive global markets, customer service and experience plays a greater role in the success of an organization than in the past. Organizations recognize this and are adapting their strategies to incorporate new mechanisms for interacting with their customers and business partners.
Integrating unified communications technologies into your customer facing systems or processes opens the door to developing business value opportunities and the ability to drive growth through contextual interactions, empowering your customers to make an informed decision about which communications channel they use to engage with your organization when interacting with your customer facing staff.
Taking the Plunge
Although broad collaboration across teams and regions in large enterprises is a complicated goal, several fundamental steps will prepare your organization for a new unified communications platform.
People, planning and piloting should represent the majority of early-stage work in implementing your unified communications project. Thorough plans, clear sponsorship at the executive level, and extensive pilots will have the biggest impact on the success of your project. First impressions can make or break adoption of new tools and technologies, and unified communications technology is particularly viral in the way it takes hold in an organization. A well-planned, positive first experience for a set of key pilot users will send the right message to the rest of the organization.
Unified communications is not just about deploying instant messaging or telephony, it’s about connecting people to the information and the expertise that they require in order to do their jobs more productively. By taking these practical steps now and ensuring a positive experience at the onset, your organization will be able to take full advantage of unified communications in the future.