Cisco and IBM: Enhancing the Way People Work Through Unified Communications

Transcription

1 Cisco and IBM: Enhancing the Way People Work Through Unified Communications WHITEPAPER August 2007 Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

2 Table of Contents Executive Summary... 1 A Winning Approach... 2 Current Product Integrations... 4 Voice Messaging Integration and Click-to-Call... 4 Voice Messaging Integration... 6 Lotus Notes and Domino and Cisco Unity... 6 Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Conferencing for Lotus Notes... 8 IBM Converged Communications Services Real Time Collaboration for Lotus Sametime Summary Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

3 Executive Summary The virtual workplace is not a future thought. It is here today, and its numbers are growing. The need among customers, partners, suppliers and other constituents to work seamlessly across time zones will ultimately determine the success of an organization. Unified Communications represents a comprehensive network-based communication solution that enables more effective, more secure and more personal communications. It connects users in the way that is most suitable for them at a given time. It is flexible enough to allow users to transparently communicate across and between applications as interactions warrant, independent of where they are or what device they are using. The primary components of a unified communications solution include real time, near time and stored communications such as IP telephony, rich media conferencing and collaboration, instant messaging and unified voice, and fax messaging. All are underpinned by services such as secure access and rich presence information about your current location, activity and preferences in communication to optimize interaction. Unified Communications require an integrated communications strategy and architecture enabling the secure combination of voice, video, and collaborative data applications within a robust, intelligent network. With its industry-leading breadth of solutions, its world-class partnerships, and its understanding of how to map technology to address business challenges, Cisco is uniquely able to fulfill the promise of Unified Communications. The Cisco approach to Unified Communications is founded on the company s worldwide market leadership in IP Communications and networking for the Internet. Essential to organizations communications, Cisco solutions are the foundation of today's communication networks. The IBM approach to Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC 2 ) is based on its long-standing leadership in collaborative applications and services that can transform and optimize core business processes. IBM UC 2 solutions embrace the heterogeneity characteristic of today s organizations, delivering an open and extensible software platform that integrates rich presence, IM, , unified messaging, Web, voice, video, telephony and business applications. Fostering innovation and business agility by making it easier for people to find, reach and collaborate through a unified communications experience is the key tenet of the IBM UC 2 strategy. Cisco and IBM have a long established track record of working together to provide customers with innovative business solutions. Together, the two companies are enabling a new way of communicating and collaborating one that s more open, timely, and effective. Using best in class Unified Communications capabilities from both Cisco and IBM, organizations can transform their business processes and reach new levels of productivity. Collaboration will be made easier and communications will be enhanced. Individuals and teams will work more effectively when, where and how they choose without sacrificing security or productivity. 1 Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

4 The Cisco Unified Communications integration with the IBM Unified Communications and Collaboration products described in this paper are the first steps toward fully integrated solutions for joint Cisco and IBM customers. Cisco and IBM have undertaken additional activity to increase the level of integration and offer a greater level of features and functionality. The integrated offerings from both companies will help make communications more efficient, speed business processes and highlight the commitment of Cisco and IBM to offer businesses the best unified communications experiences possible. A Winning Approach Cisco and IBM are working together to deliver faster time to value and a rich user experience across our Unified Communications portfolios. In addition, IBM can provide planning, implementation and management services to enable Cisco and IBM customers to accelerate the adoption of Unified Communications and IP Telephony technologies. Integrated Product Offerings The combination of Cisco s Unified Communications and networking experience with IBM Unified Communications and Collaboration solution and services will provide users with a best-in-class experience. It will offer businesses compatibility between IBM and Cisco s products and allow for more rapid delivery of functionality together and from others. Integrated product offerings from Cisco and IBM include IBM Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Notes and Cisco Unified Communications products such as Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unity messaging, Cisco Unified Presence, and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace. These solutions will enhance the user experience and enable more effective communications. Additionally, IBM will provide services for the implementation of the unified communications solutions for customers. IBM Converged Communications Services offer an accelerated approach to the deployment of a unified communication and collaboration solution into clients infrastructures. The services offering from IBM can assist clients in designing and deploying fully integrated unified messaging and real-time collaboration solutions that combine presence, data, voice and video communications while addressing key attributes for an enterprise, such as security, availability and scalability. Such solutions require integration of this new technology, collaboration software and back-end systems along with enterprise telephony, , calendaring, scheduling, corporate directory and corporate applications. 2 Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

5 Table 1. Describes the product integration roadmap for Cisco and IBM Unified Communications products. Unified Communications Components IP telephony Cisco Unified Communications Unified Communications- Manager Unified Communications- Manager Express IBM Unified Communications and Collaboration Business Partner Integration Presence server Instant messaging Unified Presence Lotus Sametime Unified Personal Lotus Sametime Communicator Integrated desktop client Voice, video and web conferencing Voice and unified messaging Video endpoints Contact center Mobility Unified Personal Communicator Plug-ins for Lotus Sametime Unified MeetingPlace Unified MeetingPlace Express Unified Videoconferencing Unity Unity Connection Unity Express Unified Video Advantage Unified Personal Communicator Unified IP videophone (Cisco Unified IP Phone 7985G) IP Contact Center (IPCC) IP Contact Center Express Unified Mobile Communicator Unified Mobility Unified CallConnector Mobility Lotus Sametime Lotus Sametime Unified Messaging for WebSphere Voice Response Business Partner Integrations Business Partner Integration WebSphere Voice Response WebSphere Voice Server Lotus Sametime Mobile Groupware Business Partner Lotus Notes and Integration IBM Lotus Domino Secure network foundation Integrated Services Routers Catalyst Switches Self-Defending Network Business Partner Integration and directory services Business Partner Lotus Notes and Domino Integration Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

6 Current Product Integrations The functional integration of Cisco Unified Communications and IBM Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC²) products offers immediate benefits by enabling workers to use familiar Lotus applications to access communications capabilities inherent in the Cisco Unified Communications system. Current integrations include: Cisco Unity voice mail integration with Lotus Sametime 1 Cisco click-to-call integration with Lotus Sametime 1 Cisco Unity for Lotus Notes/Domino Cisco Unified MeetingPlace conferencing for Lotus Notes Voice Messaging Integration and Click-to-Call Cisco and IBM have developed plug-ins to integrate Cisco click-to-call capabilities and Cisco Unity voice messaging with Lotus Sametime. This integration enables users to place calls directly from the Lotus Sametime client. It also saves time and helps users respond faster because they can now view all of their Cisco Unity voice messages in the Lotus Sametime client. They can sort, delete and simply click to play voice messages on their PC. Figure 1. Lotus Sametime 7.5 Connect with Presence and Voice Mail Integration 1. Available Q Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

7 The benefits: A familiar user interface to access all communications Escalation to real time conversations with a click Visual access for prioritization of messages Natural language speech commands and text-to-speech to process messages from a telephone Organizations can keep and voic stores separated for purposes of compliance, but still provide an integrated user experience The impact: Respond faster to customers Reach key decision makers more reliably on the first try Reduce latency in business processes. Enhance productivity and effectiveness Reduce training by streamlining communication tools into a single client application Click-to-Call Lotus Sametime users can access Cisco Unified IP Phone status information 2, view and play Cisco Unity voice messages, and click-to-call another user directly from the Lotus Sametime client. Figure 2. Initiating a Click-to-Call 2. Available mid Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

8 When the Lotus Sametime user selects Click-to-Call from the pull-down menu (see Figure 2), or clicks on the phone button in a chat session, a dialog box appears which provides multiple calling options. The caller can select from a list of phone numbers (populated from the corporate directory) for both the calling party and the called party, or type in a new number. This allows the user to select the correct phone number based on the current location of the person the user is trying to reach, as well as to use alternate originating phones if the user is away from the office phone (such as a mobile phone while traveling). When a phone call is initiated, the originating caller s phone rings first. Once the originating caller picks up, the service immediately rings the phone of the person being called. The status of each leg of the call is updated in real-time in the Click-to-Call dialog box. Voice Messaging Integration Cisco Unity voice messaging integration enables users to view their voice messages in the Lotus Sametime client. A list of all voice messages, including the caller name or number and the date/time, is displayed in a panel on the client window. Users simply click to play their voice messages. They can also sort and delete messages directly from the Sametime client. The click-to-call and voice messaging capabilities will be available for users of Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.0, Cisco Unified Presence, Cisco Unity 5.0 and Lotus Sametime or later. The plug-ins will be available free of charge to Lotus Sametime and Cisco customers on the Sametime Plug-In Catalog and Cisco Web site. They are expected to be generally available in the second quarter of Lotus Notes and Domino and Cisco Unity The benefits of Cisco Unified Messaging are also available through Lotus Notes and Domino. Messaging is a mainstay of today s enterprise communications infrastructure and processes. However, multiple message formats sent and received from separate un-integrated networks slow down workflow. Unified Messaging provides the integration of voic , and fax messages into a single visual repository within the familiar Lotus Notes message store. The benefits: One user interface to access all message types Visual access for prioritization of messages Electronic routing of all message types Natural language speech commands and text-to-speech to process messages from a telephone UI Customizable Automated Attendant for each Voic subscriber One data store for , voic and fax messages 6 Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

9 The impact: Enables the highest priority messages to be identified quickly and acted upon removing latency in the business process Key features of the Lotus Domino Unity Connection include: Unified Message store: all messages , voice, and fax are conveniently stored in one mail file. See example below in figure 3. Customized message notification: using profiles, subscribers identify important messages and specify how to be notified when those messages arrive. Browser-based access: using Lotus Domino Web Access, subscribers retrieve, create, and manage all messages , voice, and fax. Voice message playback and recording: using an integrated audio player/recorder, subscribers create, manage, and listen to voice messages from their computers. To implement this you must have Lotus Domino 6.0.x or later and Cisco Unity 4.0(5) or later. Figure 3. Lotus Domino Unity Connection User Interface 7 Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

10 Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Conferencing for Lotus Notes The integration of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace with Lotus Notes allows users to easily access rich media conferencing tools from within their standard Notes calendar functions. Key capabilities include scheduling MeetingPlace voice, video or Web conferencing meetings in Lotus Notes (similar to how Lotus Sametime Web conferences can be scheduled from Lotus Notes) and attending meetings via a single click from within the meeting notice. The benefits: Familiar Lotus Notes user interface to set up rich media conferencing within meeting requests Simple-to-use rich media conferencing for participants from within a scheduled meeting Provides a face-to-face experience for distant parties using video to aid communications Significant cost savings opportunities versus hosted or pay per use solutions The impact: Get faster results by increasing collaboration among distributed teams, cutting time and cost from your processes Can save money versus external service-based solutions Reduce training requirements by adding the capability to an existing user interface. Scheduling a Cisco Rich Media Conferencing Meeting From your Lotus Notes calendar, schedule a meeting and simply click Yes, create a new meeting to include Unified MeetingPlace conferencing (see Figure 4). When finished click Save and Send Invitations. The meeting is now scheduled and notifications are sent to invitees including all the meeting details. Rescheduling the meeting is as easy as dragging and dropping the meeting from one location in the calendar to another. The MeetingPlace voice, Web and video conferencing resources are all rescheduled together. 8 Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

11 Figure 4. Cisco Unified MeetingPlace from Lotus Notes Calendar Attending From Your Lotus Notes Calendar Open up the meeting in your Lotus Notes calendar and check the Connect Me section (see Figure 5). Enter another phone number if you are not at the location that Cisco Unified MeetingPlace knows for you. Cisco Unified MeetingPlace can call any phone of your choice or your video endpoint (for systems that include video integration). Click on the Connect button and the meeting room comes up inside your Lotus Notes client at the same time as Cisco Unified MeetingPlace outdials your phone or video endpoint. 9 Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

12 Figure 5. Connect to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace from Lotus Notes Calendar Meetings can be easily rescheduled or participants added or removed including the rich media conferencing. To deploy this capability you will need Lotus Notes client/ Lotus Domino server version 6.04/6.54/7.01 or later. Future Product Integrations Cisco plans to make available a suite of plug-ins that can be directly accessed in Lotus Sametime enabling users to interact with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unity, Cisco Unified Presence and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace. This suite of plug-ins is targeted for delivery by early The capabilities in the next set of integrated product offerings are expected to include: Cisco Unified Communications plug-ins for Lotus Sametime Cisco soft phone, hard phone control from Lotus Sametime Cisco Unity integration Call history Cisco Phone Presence aggregation Lotus Sametime web session control of Unified MeetingPlace audio and video conferences Access to all the plug-in extensions developed for the Lotus Sametime environment by third party vendors. In addition to these integrated product offerings, Cisco will continue to offer its fully integrated Unified Personal Communicator, and IBM will continue to offer Lotus Sametime. This enables customers to choose the appropriate client environment to meet their specific communications needs. In addition, Converged Communications Services from IBM Global Technology Services (GTS) will continue to offer complete services for the integrated products. 10 Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

13 The Cisco and IBM roadmap includes the integration of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace and Lotus Sametime. Specifically, Cisco and IBM each plan to make available Lotus Sametime Web conference control of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace audio and video conferences and click-to-conference capabilities from Lotus Sametime. This means that a Lotus Sametime user will be able to launch a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace audio and video conference from the Lotus Sametime client. In addition, these capabilities will be extended further to include meeting controls from a Lotus Sametime Web conference session mute/unmute, eject attendee, roster and current speaker indication. IBM Converged Communications Services Real Time Collaboration for Lotus Sametime IBM Converged Communications Services for real time collaboration and Lotus Sametime 7.5 are a pre-integrated suite of base implementation services designed to accelerate the deployment of the IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5 platform. Clients can benefit from using IBM services through quicker time to value thanks to a preintegrated and pretested solution, an improved project success rate, a collaboration system that is more easily supported after implementation, and end-to-end project implementation from installation to integration. Services offered by IBM cover installation, integration, training, documentation and ongoing support. Services are delivered by an experienced team of IBM professionals, available worldwide. Base services include: Deployment of the Lotus Sametime 7.5 platform Configuration of the environment to your specific needs Integration with enterprise directories Active Directory or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Integration with supported public IM communities Linkage to corporate intranet Deployment of location-aware clients Deployment of the embedded Voice Chat function of Lotus Sametime software Training for administrators and users Solution documentation and guide for managing the environment Implementation of Web conferencing Also available are IBM Converged Communications Services for network convergence that include a full range of consulting, integration, deployment and managed services designed to help clients build an IP telephony solution over a converged Voice over IP (VoIP) network. These services help clients to perform an ROI analysis for future converged communications solutions, assess the readiness of current IP networks for converged communications solutions and where needed, help to design, deploy and manage converged communications ready networks. These services can include the network preparation and design and the deployment of Cisco desktop IP phones, PC softphones, voice over wireless LAN phones, and person-to-person video telephony. 11 Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

14 Summary IBM and Cisco are driving new innovation in collaboration and communications by responding to customer demand for better integration between our products. As Unified Communications applications become increasingly prevalent in the workplace, organizations are realizing the associated benefits. They are discovering how they can be more creative in bringing communities together to offer communication and collaboration options that fit users individual work preferences. Results documented by a Sage Research study conducted in September 2005 plainly demonstrate that UC applications deliver a multitude of benefits both in terms of employee time savings and financial savings. Unified communications applications not only facilitate productivity improvements for mobile employees, they can also enhance the way in which all employees communicate by: Avoiding time wasted on attempts to reach unavailable staff Simplifying communications to improve long-term productivity, business process reform and financial performance Improving decision-making through faster collaboration Organizations using Unified Communications clients saved an average of 32 minutes daily per employee because presence technology enabled staff to reach one another on the first try. And while getting more out of your people is important, the true benefit is seen by your customers and partners who receive a differentiated level of service. Cisco and IBM are strategic alliance partners and have a strong track record of collaboration on their respective products and technologies, delivering benefits for businesses. Both companies are actively working to further enhance capability across a number of product and service areas to provide organizations with maximum flexibility in deploying unified communications. Some of these integrations are available today, and more will be available soon. By integrating our products, jointly promoting an open, standards-based client technology, and leveraging the open developer community, Cisco and IBM will enable their joint customers to leverage existing infrastructure investments and deliver new productivity applications to streamline communications. And, IBM will provide services to help our joint customer maximize the value of their investments. 12 Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance: Whitepaper

15 Please visit these other web sites for additional information: Cisco Unified Communications Cisco and IBM Alliance IBM Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC 2 ) IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Lotus Notes IBM Converged Communications Services Cisco Systems, Inc. 170 West Tasman Drive San Jose, CA International Business Machines Corporation New Orchard Road Armonk, New York IBM Corporation All Rights Reserved. The information contained in this publication is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this publication, it is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this publication or any other materials. Nothing contained in this publication is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM or its suppliers or licensors, or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software. References in this presentation to IBM products, programs, or services do not imply that they will be available in all countries in which IBM operates. Product release dates and/or capabilities referenced in this presentation may change at any time at IBM s sole discretion based on market opportunities or other factors, and are not intended to be a commitment to future product or feature availability in any way. Nothing contained in these materials is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, stating or implying that any activities undertaken by you will result in any specific sales, revenue growth or other results. IBM, the IBM logo, Lotus, Lotus Notes, Notes, Domino, Sametime, and UC2 are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Cisco, Catalyst, MeetingPlace, and Unity are registered trademarks and the Cisco logo is a trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. 08/07