MARKET REVIEW Unified
communications is now more relevant to a workforce that is becoming increasingly dispersed. Here’s why...
UC now mission critical U
nified Communications is now relevant to businesses of all sizes, from large enterprises to virtual/home
offices because in today’s business environment professionals are constantly bombarded with time and mission critical information, most of which comes in the form of email, voice and fax messages. An employee’s ability to handle and respond to contacts can mean the difference between a company that effectively communicates with its key audience, and one that is out of touch with those most critical to its success. “As telecommuting and off-site working become more common, companies need to keep these ‘road warriors’, or mobile professionals, informed and in touch,” said Lesley Hansen, Group Marketing Director, TeleWare. “In order to maintain a competitive edge and help their employees be more productive, many companies are deploying unified communications solutions. They increase productivity, facilitate mobility, and give companies a competitive advantage.”
Providing a UC solution that simplifies and enables the move to fixed mobile convergence opens up ongoing revenue opportunities. A sound approach for resellers is to focus on products with a low cost of entry and easy up-sell options, observes Hansen. Less than five years ago unified messaging, hot desking and home working were the primary project drivers that led to a unified communications solution, but this is no longer the case, believes Hansen. “Today, projects for VoIP to reduce costs, for mobile/wireless solutions such as DECT to provide coverage, reduce mobile call costs and meet increasingly stringent health and safety issues, are likely to indicate potential customers for UC and FMC solutions,” she said.
Lesley Hansen
The key applications that extend business processes to distributed locations either through fixed or wireless communication include conferencing, call recording, being part of the company inbound call
management plan and contactability. Adding value and making the mobile and distributed workers part of the team even when not in the office is key, while providing the same services to all employees irrespective of network, location or device is also a requirement.
“Unified communications will provide better control of in-bound calls, eliminate phone tag, bring an ability to link voice and fax messages, enable time and money savings, with easy call management through the web,” added Hansen. “Unified communications users have a high level of comfort and confidence knowing that callers can reach them anywhere and at any time. But at the same time, they maintain control of whether or not to take the call.
Empowering comms
“Unified communications makes the phone, once again, a valuable business utility. Mobile workers are empowered, not penalised, simply because they are out of the office. Home office and virtual office environments now have the same robust and powerful telecommunications tools as the main office. And a carefully considered and well deployed FMC solution integrating the mobile handset into the PBX will reduce calling costs, provide PBX functionality to the mobile device and bring the mobile into the control and management structures of the corporate network.”
The solutions and applications that are in greatest demand are ones that fit around the way the end user wants to work and not the end user trying to fit around an application, says Kevin Scott Cowell, CEO, Voicenet Solutions. “An understanding of the workforce needs, which are all going to be different, is required,” he commented. “For example, a sales person who spends a lot of time out of the office needs the ability to be contactable via one number. That person can hot desk at home, work on a customers’ premises with plug and play devices using applications
The Comms National Awards yet? Visit
www.cnawards.com
Have you entered 60 COMMS DEALER JUNE 2011
Sponsors the Unifi ed Comms Category
www.comms-dealer.com
such as Management Information Systems, call recording, ‘find me follow me’ etc. And by tapping into their Phone Manager they can make sure that devices such as mobiles find the current device, and if not answered point to another person. Calls are not lost, productivity is up, sales are up, customer satisfaction is up. UC makes remote working simple, and the collaboration tools mean that workers aren’t offline from what’s going on in the business.”
The main drivers behind the changing business models that have brought about a more mobile and distributed workforce include the emergence of the a global economy with no local or even national ties. Business cycles are shorter while careers are varied and ever changing with more people working from home. “With the changing business cycles, skills requirements can change rapidly within a business. They’re not all available locally so the search for staff with appropriate skills becomes national,” added Cowell. “Also gone are the days of corporations investing in large offices. It’s a big long-term commitment and reducing the sq ft per employee is a key metric for many, and ratios of 10:1 (people to desks) are being achieved. This hot desking makes UC a must.”
For more on UC&C see page 42
SCENARIOS WHERE UC BENEFITS CUSTOMERS • Spending a large part of the day away from the desk or on the road.
• Working full or part-time in a non traditional office (home office, remote office or mobile office).
• Spending much time playing telephone tag either because people are on the phone, away from their desk or out of the office.
• Using multiple communications devices (office phone, cell phone, pager, fax, email).
• Dealing with callers who can’t effectively predict which phone number is the best way to reach them at any given time.
• Needing to prioritise calls so workers take important ones and leave less important calls for later.
n
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72