Despite numerous benefits of a company-wide integrated UC solution, many businesses are still unenthusiastic to take this challenge on board. Surely the promises by Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya and others vendors are compelling enough. So why the hesitancy?
“We have seen many system integrators selling the solution, yet forgetting to share the full roadmap to see the project through to the end. Successful implementation, from top to bottom, is the key to the success and foundation of a unified communication solution. There are many areas to consider, some of which are often glossed over or left out, due to unforeseen costs,” says Duncan Barnes, Plantronics UC Manager Africa.
Understanding the needs of the employees and the direction of the business is critical. Such an implementation cannot run smoothly without a strong change management programme in place to ease in employee tension to the new programme. A successful UC implementation is driven by smarter working strategies (home-working, distributed team members and remote working) and products (headsets, VOIP, IM and presence), which in turn, can increase both productivity and employee satisfaction.
“Open discussion on these areas of change and how UC will inevitably bring value to the business is often the first missing step. Deploying, installing and configuring the solutions are the easy part, understanding the value that this adds to the business is where the real work lies. Preparing and presenting UC to the company employees, whom are the most impacted, is where most discussions/implementations break down,” says Barnes.
Discussions must start with what is most important - namely, the benefits of UC, and how, together with a successful implementation from start to finish, it can lead to a more productive and more satisfied workforce. Details regarding services, hardware, end points, licensing and costs can follow after this.
Did you know that by implementing UC:
* People become the centre of the communications experience;
* Travel expenses can be reduced by up to 40%;
* Telephony and conferencing charges can be reduced by up to 40%;
* Your business becomes more agile - it increases virtual interaction effectiveness that shortens decision-making processes;
* You can deliver superior business communication anywhere that enhances collaboration; and
* You can minimise impact on IT support.
At Plantronics, we are supporting our channel and our customers with our industry-first complete UC Toolkit - a unique online resource for IT professionals, which delivers real-world best practices, tools, and guidelines for successful UC audio endpoint roll-out and adoption, which can be used at every phase of audio device deployment effort, including trial, plan, deploy, adopt, and evolve.
It puts information, insights, and valuable tools directly into the hands of IT departments, ensuring they're able to choose the very best UC audio device to suit their employee's needs, accelerate user adoption, and meet their overall business requirements. It also includes customised tools for many Plantronics UC audio devices and is aligned with a common approach to technology integration. Resources and assets include interactive set-up guides, guidelines for success, checklists, surveys, whitepapers, FAQs and wireless voice assessment tools.
People truly are at the centre of the communication experience - evermore so in the successful implementation and integration of unified communication within an organisation.
Access the Plantronics UC Toolkit at: www.plantronics.com/uctoolkit.
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