lifecycle management is key for successful unified communications

Copyright 2014 Riverbed Inc. Confidential.1

Kevin McGowanPrincipal ConsultantJune 30, 2014

Bring it full circle:Lifecycle Management is the key to successful Unified Communications

Copyright 2014 Riverbed Inc. Confidential.2 Copyright 2014 Riverbed Inc. Confidential.2

Agenda

• State of Unified Communications

• Lessons Learned

• UC Lifecycle Management Defined

• UC Lifecycle Management Program

• Phase-by-Phase Lifecycle Overview

• UC Lifecycle Management Benefits

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State of Unified Communications

• Rapid evolution from VoIP to UCC

• Vendor-specific approaches

• Little interoperability

• On-premise vs. cloud

• Distributed systems and applications

• Location-independent users

• Ad hoc business process integration

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Lessons Learned

Moves, adds, and changes

run amok

Frustrating end-user

experiences

Underutilized resources

Lack of management and support

visibility

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UC Lifecycle Management Defined

• Introduces proactive management approach

• Driven by change

• Standardizes processes

• Focuses on business and technical impacts

• Enables verification and operational readiness

• Emphasizes the end-user experience

• Supports richer performance and utilization measurements

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3

Determine proper implementation model for UC changes:

• Define required change model for each change level (e.g., pilot, single/multi-phase)

• Determine the appropriate implementation schedule and cadence for each change level

Change Implementation

Model

2

Define UC change levels based on the following criteria:

• End-user impact: What is the expected impact on workflows, training needs, and barriers to adoption?

• Change type: Is the change a new component/service or an update to an existing one?

• Management impact: What tools, systems and processes will be required to support the change?

Change Definition

UC Lifecycle Management Program

1

Identify technical and business decision makers and contributors:

• Technical representation from engineering, ops, and customer service to focus on implementation design, processes, supporting systems, and performance measurements

• Business representation to focus on ROI, implementation costs, and management/support costs

Change Management Committee

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UC Lifecycle Management: Plan

1. Management committee focus: • Change impact and schedule• Technical impact of change • Resources/skillset requirements• End-user training needs • Operational system/process

requirements• Pre-change performance and

implementation baseline• Estimate business and revenue

impact• Estimate high-level budget for

change

2. Plan stage requirements:• Review expected impact scope• Propose revenue and business

impact plan that includes costs for operations, end-user training, management and support system tools

• Recommend change implementation model

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UC Lifecycle Management: Design

1. Management committee focus: • Detailed change implementation

design• Expected end-user impact• End-user and implementation team

training requirements• Operational system/process

requirements• Review pre-change performance and

implementation baseline analysis• Change, implementation, and support

costs

2. Design stage requirements:• Complete detailed implementation

design• Complete end-user and

implementation team training • Settle on post-change performance

and implementation expectations• Develop comprehensive

implementation plan• Develop comprehensive change

verification and operational transition plan

• Agree on change implementation schedule

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UC Lifecycle Management: Implement

1. Management committee focus: • Implementation design feedback• Implementation process, rate, and

schedule feedback• End-user impact and training

feedback• Management/support systems,

processes, and tools feedback• Change implementation costs

2. Implement stage requirements:• Verify implementation standards• Achieve implementation rate• Evaluate issues, use of new features,

and training requirements to get a snapshot of end-user performance and adoption

• Evaluate resources and supporting systems against implementation design for call performance, bandwidth utilization, gateway/SIP trunk utilization, etc.

• Monitor actual versus budgeted implementation costs

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UC Lifecycle Management: Operate

1. Management committee focus: • Post-change end-user performance,

usage, and adoption feedback• Management/support systems,

processes, and tools feedback

2. Operate stage requirements:• Integrate standard management and

support systems and processes• Verify use of new features and

training requirements align with end-user performance and adoption objectives

• Enable end-user troubleshooting/remote endpoint control

• Ensure resources/supporting systems support call performance, bandwidth utilization, gateway/SIP trunk utilization, etc.

• Verify configuration changes adhere to implementation design standard

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UC Lifecycle Management: Optimize

1. Management committee focus: • UC assessment input for future

change implementation consideration

2. Optimize stage requirements:• Conduct a comprehensive analysis

of system, resource, and end-user performance; endpoint, feature, and application usage; end-user service impacts; and device/resource utilization• Compare all measurements

against expected design standards

• Conduct an assessment of management/support processes, systems, and tools

• Identify and remediate any issues• Make further recommendations to

reduce costs and optimize management and utilization

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UC Lifecycle Management Benefits

Improved ROI• Standardized processes shorten implementation

timeframes, accelerating time to value and cost reduction benefits.

EnhancedAdoption

• Increased visibility into end-user usage and performance supports changes to training or implementation models while ensuring the expected level of end-user adoption is achieved.

Accelerated Change

• Confidence to not only accelerate the implementation rate, but also the number of major changes within your network.

Superior user

experiences

• Enables organizations to deliver positive end-user experiences while increasing user productivity.

Consistent Managemen

t

• Ensures all required management systems, processes, and training are available to support planned changes.

Reduced Costs

• Eliminates unexpected end-user or service impacting issues.

• End-user visibility and control reduces mean time to repair and reliance on users to assist with troubleshooting processes.

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Bring it full circle:Lifecycle Management is the key to successful Unified Communications

Kevin McGowankmcgowan@riverbed.com(415) 577-0533

Copyright 2014 Riverbed Inc. Confidential.14

Thank You

Copyright 2014 Riverbed Inc. Confidential.14