Business assessments are key to the successful planning of a Unified Communications solution. Staff should be evaluated in terms of how they communicate, who they communicate with and where they perform their day to day activities. As workers become more mobile they are performing their role from a combination of work environments. They can be working from their desk, across many office sites, at home, or in the car. Business processes should also be evaluated for communication weaknesses. Weaknesses generally occur where some form of human interaction and communication is necessary to complete a business process.
Unified Communications by its very nature is set to change behaviour and the way people communicate. A Unified Communications solution does not have to be implemented as a single project. Rather, implementation occurs as a series of initiatives all coming together under a single vision.The typical starting points include:
Mobility
Enabling mobile workers to be effective from anywhere will provide the largest return on your investment. Workers can be equipped with one contact number for voice, fax,video and TTY.
Unified Messaging
Unified Messaging can be accomplished by leveraging Microsoft Exchange or IBM Lotus as the message store, or by utilising Outlook or Notes to access email and voice mail stored in separate servers.
PC applications on the telephone
If the phone is on a desk or connected via VPN software from the home office, the business telephone is classified as “always-on” . A user can access a business wide LDAP directory; gain visual access to voice messaging; obtain information from the internet, access email, contacts, and calenders.
Video
When making an audio call, a unified communications system can automatically establish the video connection if both ends are video enabled. You can blend different protocols and different end-points (group, desktop, multi-site, right up to telepresence apps and High Definition).
Unified Conferencing
ROI will be obtained by bringing service provider based audio and web conferencing services in house. Savings will be achieved by using your own network to host the conferences.
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