Thinking about Deploying UC? Take a Look at Real-World Benefits
Author: Jamie Ryan, CIO at AspectMuch of my last year at Aspect has been spent working with my team to evaluate and plan for our nex
t generation communications architecture. Like many other companies, years of growth via mergers and acquisitions had left us with a hodge-podge of technologies, including PBXs from six different manufacturers; VoIP and TDM systems of various ages, feature sets and revision levels; multiple voicemail systems and instant messenging platforms; and completely separate and distinct voice and data networks that were inefficient in both capacity and costs.
There were other challenges as well. Because we had multiple telephone environments, we needed more support staff with varying skill sets. We were stuck with sub-optimal legacy voice and data contractual obligations that were inherited through M&A activity. Our company’s cross-geography communications were suffering due to the absence of a company-wide tool set resulting in latency in our decision making across the enterprise. And, our travel and conferencing-related costs needed to be contained.
We were initially comparing the risks and rewards associated with traditional PBXs versus IP PBXs, and were going to move toward IP PBXs. At the time, Microsoft had just introduced Office Communications Server (OCS), which introduced a whole new option. Should we introduce yet another technology and press forward with unified messaging, or adopt OCS and develop and implement a true unified communications (UC) strategy?
We ultimately settled on moving forward with our UC deployment leveraging Office Communications Server 2007 R2 as a central part of our strategy so that we could streamline internal and external collaboration, and deploy software-powered communications in the future rather than hardware-based technology.
And, so far, so good. Our IT organization has worked closely with Aspect® Professional Services to successfully deploy Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2 at our corporate headquarters in Chelmsford, Mass. our San Jose Calif. office, to more than 400 remote workers and most recently our Stockley Park office in the United Kingdom. We are continuing our global rollout to more than 1,800 employees, with North America and Europe slated for completion by June, and the Asia Pacific region following in the second half of this year.
The best part is that we’ve already begun to see some significant benefits. Our local and long distance costs have dropped as a result of our session initiation protocol (SIP) Trunking, and will enable us to realize savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars as we complete our deployment. We’ve also seen our conferencing costs decline, and we’re on course for a full return on investment (ROI) in less than 18 months. In addition, our company is starting to enjoy some of the “soft” benefits, such as productivity gains and most importantly in a globally distributed work environment – an enhanced sense of community and collaboration.
There is no doubt that a UC implementation is an all-encompassing endeavor that touches every part of the enterprise. From a CIO’s perspective, I can tell you that it’s definitely worth the effort.
Author: Aspect
Catergories: Unified Communications
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