Culture and Technology Go Hand in Hand
Author: Jamie Ryan, CIO at AspectUnified communications is as much about a company’s culture as it is about technology. You see, for years people have been sending emails on computers and using separate devices to initiate and receive phone calls and retrieve voicemail messages. They’ve been going through the motions of making phone calls and leaving voicemail messages but, until now, they haven’t actually had the ability to see someone’s presence and proactively pick the best communication channel.
Because of UC, Aspect employees no longer have clunky old phones sitting on their desks. For some, the idea of losing their traditional phone was somewhat of a radical concept that was difficult to swallow – no more traditional phone? Nope. Instead, our employees now plug their headsets into their computers and “click” on a phone number or just type a person’s name, rather than dial, to initiate a phone call. This change was more than just a physical change, getting rid of telephony hardware. It required a philosophical shift. With UC
, it becomes less about making the phone call, sending the email, or leaving the voicemail message. With UC, it is entirely about communicating.
To get our organization ready for this monumental shift in thinking, our IT group shared detailed information with our employees at every step along the way. We also provided each employee with a brief but thorough training session to help them get used to the new features and capabilities available through OCS. And, we were available to answer any questions that popped up after employees had transitioned.
I’d be remiss if I led you to believe that end users were the only ones to face a cultural shift. Every IT organization will also experience changes with a UC implementation. Here’s why. In completely separate data and voice environments, IT usually owns the data network and facilities or the contact center owns the voice network. Voice and data have fit neatly into these little boxes for quite some time. But, UC blurs the boundaries by converging voice and data, and making it possible to look at voice, voicemail, conferencing, email, IM, and the network as one service. This inevitably brings up organizational challenges that companies need to address as they navigate through the UC planning process. Some important questions are: What does each department own today and how will that change with the UC deployment? Who will manage the new, converged network? Who will they report to?
I’m more than happy to talk to you in detail about the paradigm that organizations must overcome when they deploy OCS. What questions do you have?
Author: Aspect
Catergories: Unified Communications
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