Unified Communications

Unified Simplified Team Members & Collaboration Tools Sally Loies Jeff Newton Haidar A. AlMubarak Grzegorz Walukanis

Presentation Summary What is Unified Communications What are the major issues with Unified Communications Activities / Dimensions Presentation of Use Cases & recommended software Questions

What is Unified Communications Unified communications (UC) is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, IP telephony, video conferencing, call control and speech recognition with non real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voic , , SMS and fax) UC is not a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types -Wikipedia.org

Unified Communication Products Unified Messaging: The handling of voice, fax, and text messages in a single mailbox that a user can access either with phone Presence Technology: A status indicator that conveys ability and willingness of a potential communication partner Unified Conferencing: Ability to collaborate remotely with colleagues and customers using audio, video, and Web conferencing IP Telephony: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) which is a technology used for delivery of voice communications over the internet

Unified Communication Vendors

Issues With Unified Communications Cost Support Network Performance No one solution fits all – not a single product Lack of integration planning with existing applications

Activity Dimensions Unified Massaging: Provide ability to access voice, , and fax messages with single device and single interface Security: Protect against unintended interception Flexibility: supports wide range of device types Mobility: accessible from most anywhere anytime Financial: consolidation of previously separate systems and services will results in maintenance & service cost savings Reduce Environmental Impact: Replace multiple devices with single device reduces device consumption and waste Improve staff efficiency: reduction in number of devices and interfaces staff needs to be trained on will increase efficiency Presence technology: Enable staff to reach one another on the first try - reduces having to use multiple methods to contact coworkers Applications: mobile unified communications knowing best way to reach coworker Financial: Reaching coworkers on first try can result in decreased time for decision making which improves customer service turnaround time which can increase revenue Resourceful: Devices can be included in the map of what's available so we know what things are being used on the network Improve Business Productivity: Ability to respond to customer service requests on a real time basis by having access to always on channel communication and decreasing decision making time. Flexibility: support for flexible work arrangements while maintaining productivity Improve staff efficiency: Anywhere access keeps employees more productive Financial: Shorter sales cycle, avoidance of missed customer calls can result in increased revenue Scalability: Can grow and adapt to new technology as the business needs Efficiency: Improve and simplify meeting initiation process Dimensions

Unified Conferencing: Collaborate remotely with colleagues and customers using audio, video, and Web conferencing. Financial: reduces cost for travel Reduce Environmental impact: Replacing travel with Web conferencing reduces fossil fuel consumption Simplicity: Allows colleagues use different conferencing software, whichever might be preferred by the user Management: Single management tool to manage all the users, regardless of the medium they use to join the conference Flexibility: Conference can be done at any time and at any place Improve Operational Efficiency: Work more efficiently and deliver more services at lower overall cost while ensuring reliability Financial: consolidation of previously separate systems and services will results in maintenance & service cost savings Improve efficiency: Manage security, compliance, and archiving policies for messaging and telephony systems with common tools Reliability: Provide failover, redundancy, and scalability Security: Protect information from unauthorized access, use, and disruption Scalability: New services added with little overall cost or maintenance to application Support: One help desk handles all technologies instead of one help desk per technology Continuity Operations: Ability to sustain all business operations throughout all levels of corporate disaster modes Applications: Can be hosted in un-manned datacenter as it may provide medium for all day-to-day primary corporate communications in the event the headquarters is unavailable Financial: Application maintenance cost is minimal providing for quick software upgrade cycles Security: Full remote admin capability for all facets of application Reliability: Level of disaster recovery within system (i.e. conferencing feature of UC application is run on conferencing carrier's network so it will be available in the event of a hardware or software failure to UC application)

Use Case 1 – Right Voice Company: Right Voice Employee: Ryan Smith Position: VP of Operations Location: Tamarac, FL Company Size: >150 full time employees. Objectives: Implement disaster recovery mode 30% faster – measured by time to be at 80% capacity in alternate location(s) Reduce operational spending by 15% Increase sales by 10% - measured by incremental revenue gained post implementation

US-based call center providing in/outbound dialing services to companies that do not have their own call center Two FL locations in vulnerable area, have experienced weather-related service interruptions Poor/non-existent business continuity plan Two locations do not work well together, one location does not back up the other Company Background

Requirements To enable the Clewiston employees to field calls in tandem with the employees in Tamarac To allow employees to better connect to the center for call answering and one another when one or both offices are unavailable Business continuity is shored up and all users will have full access to systems and applications in the office or at home Simple, straightforward application(s) that can be implemented quickly and used easily

Nice-to-Haves Video Conferencing Mobile access to UC features Managed hosting offering whereas critical applications are hosted off-site

Potential Solutions Verizon Business Mitel Broadsoft Microsoft

Selected Solution Verizon Business Audio Conferencing Video Conferencing Web Conferencing Call Center Messaging Mobile PBX Hosted VoIP Hosted IP Wireless Mobile/Cellular

Company: Basic PetroChem Employee: Alex Faol Position: VP of Production Location: Around the Globe Company Size: >10000 full time employees. Objectives: Reduce the time taken to get materials from the warehouses to the production line plants. Reduce international calling costs to sales offices. Reduce traveling cost for the monthly and quarterly meeting between line managers and senior management. Use Case 2 – Basic PetroChem

Multiple warehouses and factories, warehouse staff are not always on the PC or near the phone Long distance and international calls cost for remote offices and customers Monthly and quarterly meeting; teleconference is not always sufficient or available resulting in increased travel expenses Company Background

Presence status Easy implementation with little upgrade to current infrastructure Leverage current data network between offices for long distance and international calls Rich meeting and conferencing capabilities Low learning curve on software Requirements

Meeting recording Recorded meeting transcription Integration with the Line of Business application “ERP, CRM …. “, with less effort and time Repository to save files related to meeting and projects “Meeting spaces” for ongoing project meetings Nice-to-Haves

Cisco Microsoft NEC Potential Solutions

Microsoft Presence management Audio, video, and Web conferencing. Meeting recording Instant messaging. Unified messaging solution. Web Client. Mobility (Client for mobile devices). Manage compliance, and archiving policies for messaging and telephony systems Integrate with LOB application using APIs. Will not require major changes in the infrastructure. Selected Solution

Presence Web Client Meeting Demo

Questions…