28 egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2010

Deployments of UCIndian Air Force has deployed unified communications across 65

locations for 65,000 users

North Wales Police has adopted unified video conferencing and unified

messaging solution on smart phones, enabling more ‘on-the-street’ time

Government of Australia has installed Cisco TelePresence in 20

locations across the country for travel cost reduction and increased

productivity

US Consulates have been actively using Cisco TelePresence

the UC way to ConneCteDness anD CollaborationThere are a broad range of clients, applications and devices:

• Unifiedvoiceandmessagingsolutions—voice,e-mailandfax

message accesses from a single interface.

• Integratedvideo,audio,documentandfilesharingservices

withWebEx,CiscoUnifiedMeetingPlaceandCiscoTelepresence

• Integratedworkflowapplicationsandavirtualcontactcenter

through the Contact Center Solution

With ambitious plans

for citizen services

delivery and common

service centres chalked up,

the priority for government

departments is to streamline

communications and enable

collaboration. Embracing new

technology will be the way

forward to overcome the chal-

lenges that plague government

departments today.

status quo at government officesVideo and voice communication

channels are disparate in most

government departments.

Even within the voice chan-

nel, a department secretary

for example has different

phones for interacting with

different sets of people—an

internal phone for interacting

with ministerial colleagues, a

hotline to stay in touch with the

minister and a separate phone

for communicating with the

external agencies. One has to

use different devices for video

conferencing. Consequently,

there is a lot of confusion and

decreased productivity of senior

bureaucrats, as they have to

move around to attend voice or

video calls. This in turn results in

delayed or sub optimal delivery

of citizen services.

There are other fallouts as

well. While delays can cause

extra pressure on the state

machinery and dissatisfaction

among citizens, they can also

lead to cost escalation. Slow

dissemination of information

always leads to slower imple-

mentation of a project, which

in turn invariably results in

substantial costs for the various

departments and agencies.

During an emergency,

government departments need

to coordinate and collaborate

with multiple departments.

Both voice calls as well as video

calls are needed for faster

dissemination of information

and speedier response. Calls

have to be routed to the right

decision maker for advice

and suggestions and once a

decision is taken, it also needs

to be conveyed to the relevant

authorities for implementation.

A reverse loop is essential for

feedback and corrective action.

Seamlessness in com-

munication and collaboration

will enable governments to

enhance quality of citizen

service delivery all through

the year and respond quicker

during an emergency.

Connect, communicate and collaborate India being a large country, the

state as well as central govern-

ment departments have offices

in geographically spread out

locations and there is a need

for better coordination among

departments. The government

departments also need to col-

laborate with multiple agencies.

These factors justify the

need for collaborative tools

such as unified communica-

tion (UC) that help in reducing

one-winDow Citizen interaCtionUC enables officials to cut time-to-action by leveraging multiplecommunicationwindowsrunninginthebackend

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29 July 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov

DUring emergen-Cies, Departments neeD to CoorDi-nate throUgh mUltiple Chan-nels like voiCe anD viDeo, whiCh CaUses Delays

UC breaks the silo strUCtUres anD Converges all CommUniCation on a single DeviCe at the toUCh of a bUtton

communication costs, increas-

ing employee productivity in

government departments and

driving operational efficiencies

across departments.

These new communication

solutions can also help in meet-

ing service level agreements

(SLAs) with citizens, inter and

intra department coordination,

and inter office coordination.

benefits of unified communicationsWith UC, government depart-

ments can use one solution

instead of multiple devices to

cater to their entire com-

munication requirements. UC

also offers the choice on how

software applications can be

deployed—onsite hosted or

on-demand.

Application deployment is

based on needs at hand, and

often results in the adoption

of hybrid deployment models

that draw on the speed,

ubiquity, and flexibility of cloud

computing.

Investing in unified communi-

cations also helps in consolidat-

ing and creating centralised IT

infrastructure and resources.

Besides these, the technol-

ogy also enables the govern-

ment departments to create

environmentally sustainable

workspaces by allowing officials

to collaborate online, thereby

reducing travel expenses and

carbon footprint.

opportunities galore For streamlining processes,

reducing complexity and

enabling better collaboration,

state governments have opted

for IP telephony solutions

with state wide area networks

(SWAN) wherein one IP phone is

installed in each office. However,

there is a need for increasing

its penetration within offices for

better coordination.

Also, all departments in

the state government have

their own enquiry numbers

and call center set ups. With

government-to-citizen (G2C)

applications being accessed

through citizen service centres

(CSC), state governments can

now look forward to centralise

their enquiry toll-free numbers

through virtual contact center

solutions. This single-window

interaction point between the

government and citizens will

lead to citizens’ delight.

the route to successIn order to make deployments

of unified communications

successful, the authorities need

to do detailed planning, taking

into account all likely scenarios

within their departments, laying

out the procedures and com-

municating to all government

agencies.

A structured directory listing

of all relevant authorities is

mandatory and it needs to be

updated regularly.

The room of innovation in

communications is large, and

government departments will

benefit the most from innova-

tion. Increase in productivity

and response time will be ben-

eficial, both in day-to-day affairs

and in emergency responses.

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