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Breaking Barriers.No longer just for large enterprises, midsize businesses can now leverage the power, efficiency and advantages of UCC.

By Dwight Davis

of a wide range of UCC solutions from both IT and telecommunications vendors.

Corporations that adopt UCC solutions see management and infrastructure costs drop, employee productivity increase and customer satisfaction grow. For example, Microsoft®—one of the major vendors of UCC software—performed a business value assessment of its own UCC deployment. The result: Microsoft determined that it saves $215 million annually through reduced travel costs, infrastructure savings and other UCC-related

benefits. Despite these impressive cost savings, the single greatest benefit most UCC customers realize is improved employee productivity, according to market research company Nemertes. In its report “2010/11 Communications and Computing Benchmark,” 56.4 percent of unified communications customers surveyed said improved productivity is

how they measure the success of their deployments; just 10.3 percent cited cost savings as the best measure.

In recent times, the benefits big corporations have realized by turning to UCC have increasingly become available to midsize and smaller firms. In fact, one of the most notable trends in the UCC market has been the growing number of products designed to meet the budget, ease-of-use and functional demands typical of small to midsize (SMB) companies.

Midsize Companies Prime Candidates for UCC SolutionsAlthough there are many UCC products and solutions—including cloud-based subscription services—that are practical for smaller companies, the most concentrated “downscale” UCC activity is currently directed at midsize firms. Midsize companies face many of the same communications challenges as larger corporate peers and can realize the same benefits from UCC solutions.

Some midsize companies have one physical business location; others have several. In either case, their employees—both in-office and mobile—must make the best use of a range of communications and collaboration technologies and functionality. Phone and email communications, which not long ago comprised the vast majority of electronic interactions, are now just two choices on a broad smorgasbord of options. These additional options—be they video conferencing, IM, file sharing or other forms of communication—represent a mixture of real-time and non-real-time communications avenues.

In the absence of a UCC platform, employees must interact with each communications medium independent of the others. For example, they use the company landline system to call a coworker and leave a voice mail if the person isn’t available. They use their PCs to send the co-worker an email or IM, or their mobile phones to send an email, IM or text message. They use their

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See if you can identify the common element underlying the business benefits that several midsize Dell customers have realized:• A housing management company saved 50 percent in

set-up costs by deploying an alternative communications system to a traditional private branch exchange (PBX) phone system. The new system’s presence awareness and intelligent routing features cut caller waiting times from more than 5 minutes to less than 1 minute.

• A law firm with offices throughout the world moved some of its phone traffic to a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system and realized savings that suggested a six-month payback. It estimates it will cut the number of employee flights in half by leveraging the same system’s ability to support desktop video conferencing, IM and presence awareness.

• A multicampus community college with limited IT staff and budget expects to reduce the costs of telephone moves and changes by 30 percent by shifting to a VoIP system. It also expects to cut employee driving time by up to 60 percent by implementing a video conferencing capability that professors can use to give lectures and conduct student conferences.

The common element in all three examples is unified communications and collaboration (UCC). UCC solutions (sometimes called unified communications) provide a common infrastructure for running and intermingling a combination of email, phone service, voice mail, video conferencing, instant messaging (IM), presence awareness, social networking, file sharing, and other forms of network-based collaboration and communications. Once available only to large corporations, UCC products and solutions have migrated downstream, with many now designed to meet the needs of midsize- and even small-business IT shops and users.

IT and Telecommunications Worlds ConvergeDuring the 1980s and 1990s, two parallel technology universes existed in most corporations: information technology and telecommunications. The two worlds intersected in various ways, but each had its own management hierarchy and staffing, its own set of hardware and software vendors, and its own demarcated sphere of operations.

Companies found they couldn’t justify the operational inefficiencies and costs associated with maintaining separate IT and telecommunications teams and infrastructures. For their part, employees struggled with the challenges of navigating—and fully leveraging—activities that spanned both the computer and the phone-based realms. These challenges sparked the creation

Can't Stop BYOD -- "Is happening whether companies intend it to or not" John Herrema, Senior VP, Good Technology.

Can't Stop BYOD -- "Is happening whether companies intend it to or not" John Herrema, Senior VP, Good Technology.

Learn more: 1-800-847-4043 dell.com/business/solutions18

Dwight Davis is a freelance business and technology journalist based in Washington state.

camera-equipped laptops or dedicated systems to participate in a video conferencing session.

But with a UCC solution, all of these functions may be consolidated on a single server platform and delivered via a multifunction client platform—a laptop PC with audio and video functionality, for example.

UCC solutions don’t just combine multiple communica-tions services on common servers and client devices; they also allow the services to interact in useful and productive ways. If a customer calls a company employee and leaves a voice mail, for instance, the UCC system could automatically deliver that voice mail to the employee’s mobile and/or home phone, or could attach it as an audio fi le to an email message. These types of alternative routing and blending mechanisms can greatly increase employee productivity, improve customer satisfaction and deliver a range of other business benefi ts.

a Wide Range of UCC Solutions and VendorsNot surprisingly, one of the key players in the midsize UCC market is Microsoft®, which has off ered diff erent types of software-based solutions to this sector for years. Microsoft currently markets a number of products that can contribute to UCC solutions, including its Exchange Server messaging platform and its SharePoint® Server platform for document sharing and management and other forms of collaboration. The vendor’s primary UCC platform, however, is Microsoft® LyncTM 2010, the earlier generation of which was called the Microsoft Offi ce Communications Server.

Microsoft Lync 2010 provides a single platform and user interface that unites voice communications, IM, and

audio, video and Web conferencing services. With its full set of voice features—including answer, forward, transfer, hold, divert and so forth—the system can enhance or even replace Internet Protocol (IP)-based PBX phone systems. Of course, it can also be combined with fuller UCC solutions that leverage Exchange, SharePoint and other Microsoft off erings. Furthermore, companies can choose to deploy and run these solutions in-house on their own server infrastructure, or can subscribe to cloud-based hosted versions of these Microsoft products.

There are a number of UCC solutions suitable for midsize companies available from traditional voice communications vendors as well. One of the more popular is IP Offi ce from Avaya, a VoIP solution that provides advanced PBX-like phone capabilities including conferencing, system resiliency, central administration over multiple business sites, and compatibility with diff erent client devices, including laptop PCs. Off ered in Essential, Preferred or Advanced editions, IP Offi ce can also support multipoint HD video conferencing, provides call center reporting and analysis, and can dramatically reduce costs by leveraging IP infrastructure.

The Microsoft and Avaya products are just two examples of the breadth of UCC solutions available to smaller and midsize businesses. Other vendors addressing diff erent aspects of the UCC puzzle are Cisco®, Fonality™, LifeSize® and Aastra, among many others. Indeed, the biggest challenge smaller and midsize companies may face is selecting UCC products—or combination of products—compatible with current business needs and resources while also accommodating future growth and operational demands. Solutions based on open standards, rather than proprietary technologies, lower the risk of future dead ends and also tend to “play well” with complementary technologies.

To navigate all of their options, midsize companies can often benefi t by tapping the expertise of vendor partners that understand all elements of a UCC solution, from hardware to software to services and support. With the wide range of aff ordable and powerful solutions now available, however, there is no reason why even smaller fi rms can’t achieve the range of UCC benefi ts that were formerly available only to large corporations.

UCC common infrastructure:

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and other forms of network-based communications and collaboration

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voicemail

UCC: Dollars and SenseMicrosoft saves $215M annually; 56.4 percent of UCC customers say improved productivity is the key measurement of success. (Source in article.)

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Dell may not be the fi rst company that springs to mind when considering UCC solutions, but the company is actively involved in bringing the ben-efi ts of UCC to small and medium-sized busi-nesses (SMBs). Given its long history of serving the SMB sector, Dell has a solid understanding of both the needs and the challenges facing these businesses. And by combining its own products and services with complementary off erings from its many vendor partners, Dell has positioned itself as a trusted supplier and advisor to SMB customers seeking the benefi ts UCC can deliver.

At a fundamental level, of course, Dell off ers a wide range of desktop and laptop PCs that can serve as universal UCC client devices as well as the accessories and peripherals that comple-ment the overall experience. With UCC solutions leveraging the IP network for voice, video and data communications, Dell PCs can be a consoli-dation point for all these communications and collaboration mediums.

For full UCC solutions, Dell works with its large number of vendor partners, ranging from Microsoft to Avaya to Fonality to Plantronics. UCC solutions require many software and hardware elements, and no single vendor can supply the full sweep of required technology

Dell Positions Itself at the Center of the UCC Arena

and functionality on its own. Increasingly, Dell is acting at the hub of UCC engagements, helping SMB customers assess their needs and select the best products and services to address those needs, and coordinating with its UCC vendor partners to implement the desired solutions. Dell has also developed diff erent professional services off erings designed specifi cally to help customers evaluate, implement and leverage UCC solutions.

In fact, Dell has made UCC—characterized by Dell as “Enhanced Communications”—a center-piece of its newly launched Effi cient Offi ce initiative. Under Effi cient Offi ce, Dell is working to develop and deliver a range of open, standards-based solutions designed to meet the needs of IT managers and employees at smaller and mid-size companies. Don’t be surprised to see Dell become a much more visible and active UCC player as it moves forward under the Enhanced Communications banner.

dell.com/business/collaboration

More Information @

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and other forms of network-based communications and collaboration

instantmessaging

presence awareness

social networking

fi le sharing

video conferencing