UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS. The foundation for productivity and collaboration

UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS The foundation for productivity and collaboration

THREE CLEAR TARGETS Every organisation must now aim simultaneously for three targets in its approach to enterprise ICT. Unified Communications now lie at the core of this requirement. 1. Firstly, across public and private sectors, the cost of ICT operations is under continual scrutiny. Finance and technology professionals are continually seeking ways to reduce the cost of operations without compromising quality, progress or security. 2. Secondly, CIO and CFO teams must also find ways to cut through the complexity of technology practice. The speed with which you put new technologies to work should become a source of business advantage: the more agile your ICT practices are, the more opportunities you gain for business innovation. 3. Thirdly, and most importantly, is the workspace experience of your workforce. No organisation can get the best from their workforce if the individual employees are treated like cogs in a machine. Initiative, personal responsibility and a desire to work collaboratively become the characteristics of a truly productive workforce. These characteristics are now underpinned by your approach to communication and collaboration technologies. From all three perspectives, Unified Communications are now a must for any forward-thinking business. Subsea 7 was looking to provide a rich collaboration experience for our users operating from multiple locations globally. We selected a Microsoft Skype for Business solution based upon its proven ability to enable collaboration in our business whilst delivering considerable cost savings. This was a key project for Subsea 7 s global business and we selected Getronics following a competitive tender process. Subsea 7 had already drawn upon Getronics wider UC expertise in helping shape our UC strategy. However, their Skype for Business expertise and credentials combined with their in depth knowledge of our business and value for money solution made Getronics the right choice for Subsea 7 in completing a very successful project. Anders From, Global IT Director, Subsea 7 TIME HAS NOT STOOD STILL Over the last ten to fifteen years, the evolution of Unified Communications has been continuous and remarkable. At the beginning, Unified Communications was seen primarily as a means of exploiting the additional capacity of IP networks to rationalise fixed telecommunications practice. The logic was irrefutable: why pay for separate voice and data networks and for a separate layer of voice management resources when you didn t need to? Although questions of quality acted as an inhibitor at the very start, added-value services soon appeared, boosting productivity and having a genuine impact on the way people worked. Unified directory services, for example, put an end to hunting different contact lists for different devices, while soft-phones made a major contribution to the end of the fixed desk. Functionality and benefit rapidly increased along with quality and dependability, and with the emergence of mobility as a key requirement over the last five years, Unified Communications now has a degree of maturity, a breadth of function and a level of performance which makes it an essential component of all winning business. Unified Communications has evolved over the last fifteen years to become one of the most influential and far-reaching of all workspace technologies... THEN NOW Integrated voice and data over a single network Near real-time instant messaging Convergence of voice, email and fax Soft-phones and unified directory services Predominantly fixed location and mostly internal usage Spans fixed and mobile environments Advanced collaboration with web-meeting and shared desktops Contextual presence information Extended social networking capabilities Inside and outside the enterprise benefitting employees, partners and customers too

BREADTH OF BENEFIT WHERE ARE YOU AT? Few information and communication technologies have the potential to deliver benefits as far-reaching as those of today s Unified Communications. From a pure infrastructure perspective, you do not only have the opportunity to strip out whole layers of dedicated communications equipment. You are also able to simplify the management of supplier contracts and to rationalise the number and type of devices used in the workspace. (The potential savings made simply by decommissioning superannuated PBXs can make a major contribution to new Unified Communication models.) But it s often the softer benefits that have a greater impact. Employees, for example, are able to participate with the same degree of involvement from home or any other remote location. This does not just boost productivity. It reduces the time and cost of travel, minimising fixed office use across company real estate, and eliminating reliance on costly third party conferencing services. Many organisations are discovering the business impact that highly-evolved Unified Communications can have on the quality of customer relationships too. When, for example, the skills profiles and availability status of the workforce is made evident in real-time, then their ability to serve and advise customers is raised to an entirely new level. Because Unified Communications have evolved so fast and so far, the status of usage within different organisations varies greatly. There are, for example, early adopters who were drawn to the technology because of the benefits of IP telephony but who have been slow to embrace the breadth of function now available. Whether you consider your organisation to be an experienced user of Unified Communications or a relative newcomer, it is always worth taking time to discover the latest innovations and extensions. Where early adopters have become stable users, for example, there is always a risk that real business potential lies undiscovered. This is particularly evident in terms of business process integration. Where once the focus was on integrated voice and data, the current emphasis on the integration of business data promotes exceptional continuity across all business processes. 1.25 trillion worth of assets are owned by the ING Group. Getronics has delivered, deployed and now supports Unified Communications solutions for 12,300 ING employees.

GETRONICS IS THE EXPONENT OF UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS Getronics itself is a company whose own working practices embody the benefits of advanced Unified Communications: for everything we propose to our clients, we are able to demonstrate the cost and business performance benefits achieved within our own company. Getronics prides itself on agility and responsiveness, and this is directly reflected in our own use of Unified Communications. 1. SCALABILITY 2. ERGONOMICS 3. INTELLIGENCE 123 Business teams need to form and Ease-of-use is essential. People will re-form to serve our customers only take full advantage of business changing requirements. We need functions if they are intuitive and to bring new members on board immediate. quickly, safely and efficiently. Setting up multi-party conferences, Unified Communications allows for example, whether impromptu or Getronics to equip new team members planned, couldn t be simpler. Standard in around two minutes. We can tools allow all employees to identify configure their own or their company the audience, ascertain availability, device with a secure personalised send requests and make shared profile for presence display screens available for discussion and and access to all communication problem-solving. and collaboration tools. Knowing how people are working is essential if you want to help them work even more effectively. Getronics Unified Communications reporting provides all the usage and volume data needed to understand current practice, tune resource according to demand, and plan future service provision. Built-in feedback loops even make it possible to assess user-satisfaction in real-time, and to deal with strains and stresses promptly and effectively. A COMPLETE UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS PORTFOLIO The range of business functions and capabilities made possible with today s Unified Communications technologies is continually increasing. This increase reflects both changes in behaviour and in business culture. These include heightened employee expectation arising from experience of consumer technology and the associated move towards bring-your-own-device. They also include the rapid emergence of cloud and mobility, and the associated demands for anytime access to shared data and communications services. Right alongside these dramatic increases in personal expectations for ICT, organisations must also manage the ongoing demands of governance, security and data protection and in all Unified Communications engagements, Getronics manages all this too. The Getronics Unified Communications service allows you to give your employees, partners and customers access to the following core functions: IP Telephony via hard or soft-phone Integrated presence and status Chat and instant messaging Voicemail integration Video calling and conferencing Collaboration tools, including: Screen share Web meeting Document sharing In addition, we can design and implement full IP Contact Centre solutions, giving you the opportunity to use remote authorised agents for greater flexibility and responsiveness. Getronics own IT service support professionals, thanks to IP Contact Centre technologies, can pick up and resolve calls with a full client and event history at their fingertips from any location. All Unified Communications services and functions can be fully integrated as part of Getronics workspace provision. They can also be delivered using a combination of the client s own resources or can be fully hosted by Getronics, and delivered as Online Services.

NEW WORLD OF WORK Our Unified Communications services do not stand alone. They are an integral element of our end-to-end portfolio of ICT services, which includes: ONLINE SERVICES Rapid developments in virtualisation mean more and more Getronics clients want services delivered via pay-per-use or utility models. We can deliver Unified Communications as a fully hosted service, with rapid and agile scalability helping you respond to changing demand from workforce and customers. APPLICATIONS Business applications are at the core of every company s ICT strategy. Getronics is well-positioned to help you evolve your applications portfolio in line with aspirations to increase mobility and collaboration. WORKSPACE Whether you are managing 100 or 100,000 workspaces, Getronics will help you integrate the Unified Communications functions you need safely and efficiently into a winning workspace. Our workspace services span fixed and mobile environments, and offer maximum choice for both devices and support models. CONSULTING SERVICES Our workspace, infrastructure and application management experts will help you set ambitious yet achievable business targets. These will quantify and articulate the business value and cost benefit of different Unified Communications scenarios. GETRONICS END-TO-END PORTFOLIO OF ICT SERVICES GETRONICS UNIVERSAL WORKSPACE ONLINE SERVICES DATA CENTRE Servers & Processing Storage & Backup Converged Infrastructure Hosted or On Premise UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS Enterprise Connectivity (LAN & WAN Fixed or WiFi) IP Telephony Contact Centres UC Conferencing & Collaboration Social Network Integration WORKSPACE On Premise Online Mobile BYOD / CYOD Deployment & Migration Management Managed Printing APPLICATIONS Application Development Mobile Apps Application Integration Private App Stores Online Profile Development Knowledge & Collaboration Platforms Software Workspace Platform Infrastructure CLOUD ORCHESTRATION PARTNER TECHNOLOGY Hardware Solutions l Software Solutions l IT Procurement CONSULTING Advisory Services l Readiness Assessments l Planning, Design & Implementation Project Management l Staffing MANAGED SERVICES Global Service Delivery Model & Lifecycle Management l Service Desk & Remote Management Support & Maintenance (Deskside & Remote) l Cabling & ICT Building Infrastructures SECURITY Perimeter Security l Endpoint Security l Application Security Security Architecture l Security Assessments l Security Management Advisory Services

DEPTH OF PARTNERSHIP As a vendor-independent company we have always invested in the skills needed to provide expertise in the integration and ongoing management of all dominant market technologies. Three technology companies in particular stand out in the field of Unified Communications: Cisco, Microsoft and NEC and Getronics has exceptional depth of experience with all of them. Getronics is a long-term Cisco Gold Partner, holds Cisco Unified Communications Specialisation status and is an Authorised Technology Partner for TelePresence, Customer Voice Portal (CVP) and Unified Contact Centre Enterprise (UCCE). With Microsoft, Getronics is a Gold Partner, has numerous certified Skype for Busines consultants, and has conducted large scale Unified Communications engagements in which Microsoft technology dominates. Following our acquisition of NEC Enterprise Solutions, Getronics has enhanced capabilities around NEC s portfolio of Enterprise Communications products and solutions. Getronics expertise and specialist knowledge, particularly in regards to Microsoft technologies, is exceptionally strong Anders From, Global IT Director, Subsea 7 It is also worth noting that through the Global Workspace Alliance, a global network of IT service companies, we are able to roll-out and manage consistent Unified Communications approaches to enterprises of any scale across any worldwide location. TIME TO TALK Since the earliest days of Unified Communications, Getronics has been helping clients maximise the benefit of these game-changing technologies. Different clients naturally have different requirements, and Getronics knows how to craft solutions for clients as varied as ING, Subsea 7 and Swiss Re. We are experienced in establishing rapid Unified Communications prototypes and pilots, allowing you and your teams to experiment with target groups of just forty or fifty employees after some pilot schemes, employees have been so impressed that they have insisted on keeping the pilot service! Getronics is one of the most sophisticated and experienced users of Unified Communications, and our doors are open. You are welcome to see how we take advantage of these technologies, and to talk to our employees, our technical management and our financial teams. We believe that Unified Communications are the foundation for productivity and collaboration. We think that you will too. ABOUT GETRONICS The Getronics family, comprising the Connectis and Getronics brands, has a complete portfolio of integrated ICT services for the large enterprise and public sector markets. This includes Workspace, Applications, Unified Communications, Data Centre, Cloud, Consulting, Partner Technology, Managed Services and Security. Getronics is a lead in the Global Workspace Alliance, a unique model that provides customers with a consistent IT service throughout the world, with one single point of contact and billing entity. www.workspacealliance.com Follow us @Getronics Connect with us LinkedIn Subscribe to our channel GetronicsOnline