Unified communications (UC) is a popular topic for discussion with many companies interested in all that it promises - streamlined processes, enhanced productivity, reduced costs and improved customer experiences, but most businesses are still in the planning stages.
According to a 2008 Forrester Research report, only 11% of firms have deployed UC, and 16% were in the process of rolling it out at the time of the study.
The UC planning and implementation process is one that can change course over time to accommodate a maturing strategy, but it should include an in-depth review of technologies to help build a cost-effective UC infrastructure. At Aspect, we`ve determined a number of best practices through implementing UC strategies and are currently reaping the benefits of our approach.
In fact, since the beginning of our company-wide deployment of Microsoft`s Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 in the first quarter of 2009, Aspect has saved $1 million on annual conferencing costs, eliminated multiple PBXes, which resulted in annual support savings of $300 000 and, as a result of deploying SIP trunking, has seen savings of over $250 000 annually in telecommunication charges.
Rolling out a UC deployment successfully must involve four distinct, but equally important, steps.
Step 1: Evaluate and plan
Evaluating the technology necessary and developing a timeline is key to the success of any UC strategy. In the case of Aspect, our legacy and disparate public branch exchange (PBX) architecture was becoming unwieldy and old and therefore difficult to support. We compared traditional PBXes versus IP PBXes and decided to move toward the latter.
Aiming to develop and implement a true UC strategy, we opted for Microsoft OCS, which would give us an opportunity for streamlined collaboration both internally and externally, and would help us with future deployments with software-powered communications as opposed to hardware-based technology.
The planning process helped us to identify and address two main challenges.
The first was to find the best way to phase in the new technology so that it could coexist with our current technology - a rip-and-replace just didn`t make sense. The second was to facilitate the cultural shift resulting from the disappearance of the traditional desktop telephone. Our UC strategy encompassed specific plans to address these issues, including:
* Detailed timelines for preparing the infrastructure;
* Completing internal beta testing;
* Preparedness and piloting activities prior to organisation-wide implementation;
* Educating employees; and
* Completing the actual UC rollout, beginning with our corporate headquarters and largest satellite offices and finishing with our smaller offices.
Step 2: Upgrade the infrastructure
Every UC strategy requires certain infrastructure upgrades to enable the voice and data networks to be truly merged. Aspect`s strategy involved purchasing a new storage area network (SAN) to support Microsoft Exchange in addition to the OCS and voicemail environment and provide more flexibility to store both voice and e-mail messages.
We upgraded our local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) structures so that our IT department could further support voice and data on one network, and our employees could place voice calls across the network using session initiation protocol (SIP) technology. We also upgraded our Microsoft OCS client so that we could take advantage of the enhanced functionality for chat, IM, presence, peer-to-peer and enterprise calling, and eventually video calling and conferencing.
When thinking about UC-related infrastructure upgrades and costs, as with any software purchase, be sure to budget for the purchase of licences.
Also, be prepared to renegotiate some contracts with existing voice and data service providers. If you deploy SIP and begin using SIP trunking, you might no longer need primary rate interface (PRI)/basic rate interface (BRI) connections or two separate connections for voice and data. In addition, you can gain the ability to outsource your public switched telephone network (PSTN) connectivity to a third party.
Step 3: Utilise voice and data together
The real goal of any UC strategy is to automate and unify all forms of communication - voice, video, IM, conferencing, presence and voicemail - with a common experience. The best way to do that is by enabling voice and data to traverse over one converged network and implementing a platform that can manage all real-time communications.
Aspect ran extensive tests in a lab environment, systematically adding on more and more complexity around features and functionality. It is important to conduct these tests for due diligence purposes. Once we were confident with its lab performance, we tested OCS among 35 employees in a pilot environment. The employees were selected to include multiple functional areas, a multitude of geographic locations and a varying range of technical expertise. The goal was to secure true user feedback and gain an overall understanding of the user experience before initiating a widespread deployment.
Upon completion of our worldwide UC rollout in the first half of 2009, Aspect became one of the first companies in the world to have deployed OCS, version 2007 R2.
Step 4: Educate and measure the results
As with any major enterprise-wide initiative, the success of a UC implementation requires continuous technology evaluation and communication.
Each employee included in the beta test received initial training, as well as a script of functionality to be tested on a regular basis. In addition, our IT staff provided each participant with an online log on which they could record technical issues associated with feature and function stability and usability. Aspect is using this feedback to continually identify necessary fixes and to improve educational documentation.
Since the deployment, over one million instant messaging (IM) sessions have taken place, 38 000 conference calls (70 000 when counting Web, IM and applications sharing) have been executed exceeding eight million minutes of voice calls, 6 140 Web conferences have been held logging 882 000 minutes and 886 000 voice conversations have happened, totalling more than 5.8 million minutes of talk time.
A UC implementation is an all-encompassing endeavour that requires consideration of cultural ramifications, technical specifications and the needs and wants of various stakeholders among other items. But the one overriding lesson we`ve learned is that a successful UC implementation involves an intense focus on planning and testing.
By implementing a cohesive and comprehensive UC strategy, not only did we exceed expectations on ROI, but we also finished the entire deployment ahead of schedule. The Aspect global implementation is a shining example of the company`s expertise in deploying UC across a variety of infrastructures in diverse regions across the world.
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