CONFERENCING FOR UNIFIED

Transcription

1 L E V E R AG I N G T H E VA L U E O F CONFERENCING FOR UNIFIED C O M M U N I CAT I O N S A White Paper Partnering with clients to create innovative growth strategies

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 3 Preparing for the Move to Unified Communications 4 The Time is Now 5 Entry Points Pros & Cons 6 Conferencing Services Support Unified Communications 8 Scalability 9 Flexibility 9 Cost Benefits 9 Ease of Use & Manageability 10 Mobility 10 Future Proofing 10 InterCall: The Value of Experience 11 Consulting 11 Implementation 11 Management, Support & Services 11 Conclusion 12 2

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Unified communications applications are in demand in this increasingly virtual workplace, defined by employees who are located far from their co-workers, managers and direct reports not to mention partners and customers. UC applications combine a variety of real-time and asynchronous communications tools in a single, dashboard-like application. The software includes audio conferencing, web conferencing, video conferencing, instant messaging, advanced voice capabilities and presence, as well as integration with and other productivity applications. All are designed to enhance workers productivity by allowing them to click-to-communicate. As companies better understand the value of unified communications, they are increasingly interested in deploying the technology. But as they do so, most take a laddered approach by first deploying one or two capabilities, before integrating them with others as needs require and resources allow. One of the best ways to introduce unified communications into an organization is through audio, web and video conferencing. Almost two-thirds of business discussions involve more than two people, making conferencing uniquely appropriate for enterprise collaboration. research shows that nearly 90% of employees already report using audio conferencing half of them on a daily or weekly basis. Roughly threequarters of employees also use web conferencing, and more than half use video conferencing. Those factors and others make unified conferencing and collaboration (UCC) which integrates audio, video and web conferencing in a single interface an excellent way to get started down the path to unified communications. With unified conferencing and collaboration, employees can choose the best mode of communication for the task at hand, depending on where they are and what they re doing. For instance, a sales person in the field can use his cell phone to launch an audio conference with his manager and the relevant product team to discuss a new opportunity; the product team can then continue the discussion via web conference, to hash out deadlines and details; and the sales manager can initiate a video conference with the customer to close the deal. All this can happen with just a few mouse clicks, on IP or PSTN lines, within a consistent and seamless user interface. When they re ready to deploy audio, video and web conferencing technologies, enterprises are wise to consider hosted solutions. Software as a service offers significant cost benefits, superior scalability, remarkable flexibility, ease of use and simple management. Better still, as companies weigh their options for unified communications, hosted services allow them to take advantage of unified conferencing before they commit to a fully integrated UC platform. The advantages are apparent now, and will be during the many years companies will spend deploying and integrating voice, presence and conferencing applications into a UC solution. 3

4 This whitepaper will discuss the relative merits of approaching a full unified communications deployment from a VoIP, messaging or conferencing perspective; outline the ways in which UCC supports unified communications; and demonstrate the value of a hosted approach. PREPARING FOR THE MOVE TO UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS The unified communications market is still nascent, but based on the hype, you might not think so. The buzz is generally warranted. Unified communications promises to change the way we do business for the 21 st century, but it also has many IT managers wondering how and when to deploy it. In its most fully realized form, unified communications offers users a single application interface from which they can access a range of communications tools, including voice calls, IM chat, , faxes, voice messaging and conferencing audio, video and web. These tools leverage presence information, to let users know when contacts are available and how best to reach them; unified messaging, to ensure voic s and s are accessible in any format and from any device; and mobile interfaces, to keep users connected in the best ways possible regardless of where they re working from. (Please see Figure 1: Unified Communications Framework, below.) Figure 1: Unified Communications Framework Enterprise User Communications Tools Unified Communications Telephony UM Conferencing Presence Presence Presence Presence IM Mobile Horizontal Business Process Apps CRM SCM Communications related Business Contact Center ERP Process Applications Most organizations want to support unified communications. Now, they need to map out a strategy to leverage the technology in the most effective way possible. 4

5 The Time is Now Although the vast majority of organizations are years away from implementing a full unified communications environment, it would behove them to start laying plans for that deployment as soon as possible. This is driven by the growth of the virtual workplace, thanks in large part to the increasing number of full time and part-time teleworkers (which will grow by more than 30% between 2007 and 2010),and the globalization of today s business. (Please see Figure 2: Number of Teleworkers in North America, below.) Meanwhile, all knowledge workers are being asked to make decisions faster and better, with more information. UCC can help them do that. Figure 2: Number of Teleworkers in North America Number of Teleworkers (N. America) 80,000 70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10, Source: There are several drivers for the virtual workplace, including: Organizations are shifting jobs and functional organizations to new locations within and across national borders. Colleagues who were once located on the other side of the building may now be on the other side of the world. Working effectively with them requires richer communications tools than in the past. Organizations are acquiring new companies and spinning off divisions. The identity and location of the groups we need to communicate with is changing much more rapidly than in previous decades and our tools need to evolve accordingly. Organizations are out-tasking previously internal job functions to specialist providers. This creates a need for closer collaboration with external companies. 5

6 Information and ideas are becoming democratized that is, they come from anywhere, and are often developed by people at even low rungs of the organization. Management must drive this change, because so-called collective knowledge can be more powerful, and more productive, than that of any one person. Travel is becoming more expensive and time consuming, driven by energy costs, security measures and traffic congestion. Any opportunity to effectively replace a face-to-face meeting among remotely located workers with an electronic meeting will save money, time and aggravation. When face-to-face meetings are required, the mobile worker will be out of the office for a longer period of time. Communications tools that maximize their effectiveness become more important. Technology has enabled the virtual workplace, but now it also needs to step in and help companies support it. Voice over IP and audio, web and video conferencing are able to do that, allowing users to choose the best tool for the job at hand. Indeed, three key areas of communication are becoming critical in today s global business: VoIP, conferencing and unified conferencing. Entry Points Pros and Cons When it comes to unified communications, most companies approach it from one of three starting points: Voice over IP, instant messaging (IM) or conferencing. (Please see Figure 3: The Unified Communications Universe.) Each has its advantages, but only one conferencing is regularly used by the majority of employees today. Also, as more companies deploy IP networks to support VoIP and Video over IP (VoIP 2), most are looking for other ways to leverage their investments. Although UC applications don t require an IP network, most companies plan on deploying fully-featured applications after or in conjunction with their VoIP implementations i.e., over an IP network. Running other communications applications over IP can save companies significant sums compared with running those applications over a traditional network. It can also help companies better leverage their IP investment, strengthening their ROI. Certainly, many benefits ascribed to running voice over IP can be gained from running UC functions over an IP network. But the drawback of using VoIP as the entry into unified communications is that the majority of companies today don t have enterprise-wide VoIP deployments. The capital investments can be extensive and the efforts required from IT can be extremely taxing on the organization; as a result, most companies are still piloting the technology or deploying it only in green-field or branch-office locations. Many don t plan to deploy it for years to come. 6

7 Other companies think of unified communications as a logical extension of their IM deployments. This makes sense, since the presence that underlies IM is a key element of any complete UC implementation. But like VoIP, IM isn t used by the majority of employees within an enterprise, and when it is, it s often via consumer services rather than enterprise-grade software that IT departments can manage and control. Furthermore, although the presence that underlies IM is a cornerstone of unified communications, the chat that defines the communications mode in IM is not as collaborative as other forms of communication. Figure 3: The Unified Communications Universe UC Application Stack Vertical Specific Business Process Applications ISVs (Hsptly, Retail, ) Contact Center ACD, IVR, CTI, Outbound, etc. Mobility Unified Messaging Telepresence Presence & Integrated UC Applications Conferencing & Collaboration Audio, Video and Web Unified Client Enterprise Telephony Equipment UC Tracker Application Segments Hosted \ Premise-based Services Related UC Market Segments Managed Services Services Professional, Consulting, Integration, Maintenance, Managed The third way to introduce employees to unified communications is through unified conferencing. Unified conferencing blends audio, web and video conferencing into a single application or service, allowing users to escalate an audio conference to a web collaboration session or video call with the click of a mouse. Using unified conferencing as a gateway into unified communications has several advantages. Unified conferencing uses a similar paradigm as unified communications. Because the technology allows users to monitor and control their conferences from their PC, it lets them get comfortable using the PC as the centerpiece of their communications. Unified conferencing users are able to click to communicate and choose the best form of communications for the task at hand. Furthermore, the vast majority of employees are already familiar with conferencing. Twothirds of companies have or plan to have conferencing in the enterprise over the next two years. (Please see Figure 4: Plans for Technology Deployments in the Enterprise.) Taken together, these numbers show that using conferencing as a jumping off point for 7

8 unified communications will not require significant adjustment on the part of end users they re already familiar with the technology. Furthermore, the three most popular products that respondents would like to integrate are audio conferencing (77%), video conferencing (71%) and web conferencing (71%). Despite its popularity in awareness and usage, instant messaging is preferred as a bundled feature by only 47% of respondents. Figure 4: Plans for Technology Deployments in the Enterprise % of Currently Installed Plan to Introduce in Next 1-2 yrs. No Plans of Introducing (N = 300) 17% 13% 23% 16% 33% 48% 50% 21% 70% 61% 46% 20% 32% 24% 26% Security Storage Conferencing (Video, Web) Unified Messaging Voice over WLAN Source: CONFERENCING SERVICES SUPPORT UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS Unified communications aim to solve many of today s business problems. But at the end of the day, all tools are trying to enable one thing: collaboration. Nothing is as good as conferencing at bringing people together to work on projects and problems, especially if employees are given the option to use web collaboration and video conferencing. Allowing meeting participants to manage conference calls from their PCs delivers a degree of control that boosts productivity and saves time. Meetings are more productive, and attendees are better able to put plans into action. Web conferencing allows colleagues to share information and documents on the fly, marking up files, asking questions and making comments in the context of the project at hand. Video conferencing also ensures all participants can see one another, including the visual cues that come from body language and facial expressions, which can be so critical to understanding the true meaning behind the message. Unified conferencing services offer a variety of benefits for companies that want to deploy unified communications in a strategic, well-planned way. 8

9 Scalability As companies start to deploy UCC capabilities, they can expect its use to grow in a viral pattern. One person schedules a meeting and invites participants from other workgroups or business units. Then, those attendees see the value of the technology and want to use it for their next meeting. Very soon, what started as an isolated deployment has spread throughout the enterprise. Collaboration is increased and productivity enhanced. This is great news for managers who want to leverage the value of unified conferencing and collaboration for all their employees. However, it can also put a significant burden on IT, as they suddenly strain to ramp up system and network infrastructures in a matter of days or even hours to support the surges in demand. With hosted services, companies can instantly scale up or down as needed, without overbuilding (overspending) to occasional peak capacity utilizations. Flexibility When it comes to communication and collaboration, flexibility is key. Employees need to know that they have access to a variety of tools, and that they can use whichever ones they need whenever they need them. Unified conferencing is at its best when users can click to turn an audio call into a web conference and then add video on a moment s notice. However, this only works if all users have access to all the necessary components. Large organizations with diverse networks and branch locations find optimizing performance of central on-site conferencing systems for all employee use-cases particularly challenging. On the other hand, companies that use hosted services can give all their users access to audio, web and video conferencing on a monthly or annual basis, or pay on an as-you-go basis. With hosted services, companies can also extend unified conferencing to partners, suppliers and even customers located outside the organization, without worrying about what kind of technology they use or what infrastructure they have. Cost Benefits Hosted conferencing services don t require any up-front spending to get started, which means companies can deploy collaborative technologies to anyone in the organization without having to take on a large capital expense. This is especially important for organizations that want to take small steps toward unified communications, as well as those that need to be able to offer proof points around ROI. At the same time, with today s hosted pricing models, companies don t need to worry about escalating per-minute costs as they activate hosted services for their end users. Companies can simply pay a monthly or annual fee per user and know that those employees can access unified conferencing capabilities whenever they need to, as much as they need to, and the bill will stay the same. 9

10 Ease of Use and Manageability Deploying software on-premise requires companies to be prepared to manage the applications and any networks or servers they run on 24/7. This is increasingly difficult for many companies to do, especially as they need to support a global enterprise with a dispersed workforce. What s more, conferencing applications demand that bandwidth management and network connectivity be optimized for peak performance, and for many companies that can be a challenge especially as they extend those applications to employees in far-flung locales, home offices and on the road, as well as to partners and customers whose IT infrastructure they do not and cannot control. With conferencing services, organizations can leverage the value of unified, real-time communications without having to worry about managing performance. And because hosted applications are easily downloaded by end users, IT doesn t even have to get involved with the initial deployment. Best of all, hosted conferencing services are constantly updated, ensuring that both end users and IT managers work with the easiest, most advanced technology available. Mobility According to research, 40% of companies report that more than 20% of their workforce is mobile, and 66% of those employees spend more than 20% of their time working from the road. Those employees need access to conferencing capabilities from wherever they are, and whenever they need it. They also need features that are specific to their situation, including one-number dialing and the ability to host or participate in conferences at the push of a button. Future Proofing Even as companies deploy unified conferencing today, they need to know their investments will pay off tomorrow regardless of what other technologies they decide to put into place, on or off premise. Using hosted services from an experienced provider that has long-standing relationships with leading communications vendors ensures that even if companies decide to implement a robust unified communications application behind their firewall, the software will support and integrate with the conferencing applications users already understand and use. Since hosted services don t require large up-front payments, companies that deploy them don t need to worry about protecting a large capital investment. Better still, employees often grow accustomed to technology over time and are reluctant to give it up even in the face of new deployments. Companies can deploy unified communications from the vendor of their choice, while still allowing employees to use the conferencing services they re comfortable with and most productive using. 10

11 INTERCALL: THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE InterCall has been in the conferencing services business since With more than 17 years of experience, the company can deliver high-quality conferencing services at lowest cost, without sacrificing performance or security. InterCall was among the first companies to market with mobile collaboration services, audio integration across service platforms and VoIP conferencing all of which gives the company a unique perspective in unified communications. InterCall owns and maintains one of the most advanced global conferencing networks, one that supports 99.9% uptime and capacity usage rates that never exceed 70%. Its conferencing services support VoIP and PSTN calls, as well as mobile workers. Finally, InterCall has strategic partnerships with industry leaders in the unified communications market, including Cisco, IBM and Microsoft. By leveraging that breadth and depth of knowledge and experience, InterCall helps its customers design a roadmap for implementation and growth and supports IT managers and end users alike. Consulting InterCall s meeting consultants core training has revolved around helping customers increase productivity by reducing human workflow latency due to communication inefficiencies. InterCall can help customers identify their current workflow and communication processes, then develop a pilot project designed to use high-impact conferencing features to improve those processes. InterCall can also help companies as they deploy Microsoft s Office Communications Server InterCall s dedicated UC consulting team can help customers design and architect UC solutions including collaboration, video and voice integration, as well as related security and compliance solutions. Furthermore, they can deliver IP PBX or PBX phone system integration to Exchange 2007 or Office Communication Server Implementation Combined with InterCall s core competencies in communications technologies, the provider s key partnerships allow it to help customers manage their unified conferencing projects from concept and evaluation to installation, integration and adoption. InterCall can even help customers standardize user contact information and integrate all existing and new business applications in the unified conferencing framework. Management, Support and Services InterCall offers its users a complete set of support services, designed to make conferencing simple and easy for IT and end users alike.its reputation is built on the ability to manage scalable services and technologies for its customers. InterCall can also support an array of implementation options, including fully on-premise solutions, hosted off-site solutions or a mix of the two. 11

12 CONCLUSION Unified communications offers organizations a chance to change the way they do business in the 21 st century. That s good news in an increasingly global and virtual workplace, but it also requires that IT and business managers prepare for the change. Unified conferencing offers a great way to get a jump on any unified communications implementation, while delivering significant cost savings and productivity gains. When considering unified conferencing and collaboration, companies should evaluate hosted services to see if its cost-effective model meets their management, security and scalability needs. Conferencing services ensure employees have access to the latest audio, web and video technologies now, while protecting a company s short- and long-term investments. 12

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