We have a great session coming up at Enterprise Connect Orlando 2014 (EC14) that will provide perhaps the best focus yet on the options available for deploying UC successfully, purposefully and profitably in your enterprise. The session will also include bonus prizes at the end, for those "present to win" (read more below).
UC Options: The Many Ways to Do UC is scheduled from 2:30-5:30 PM on Wednesday, March 19. This will likely be the most comprehensive session in the entire EC14 program on the topic of why to choose and what to choose for your enterprise's UC solution set.
This is a new session on the Enterprise Connect program, replacing the "RFP for UC without a New PBX" sessions from the past four years. The RFP results from the past two years showed that essentially all the major vendors could check the boxes and respond to the RFP in a very acceptable way. The bottom line scoring in 2013 across seven major vendors ranged from 83.0 to 89.4 out of a possible 100. Thus, all the major vendors are qualified to deliver UC based on RFP specs.
So the challenge now is to really understand the business requirements, not just the feature checklists, so that your enterprise can select the vendor(s) that will best support your enterprise's goals.
There are essentially three broad approaches, or options, for finding the optimal UC solutions for your enterprise:
1. Build UC on the foundation of your IP-PBX. When the communications needs of your workflows are primarily real-time communications, this probably is the best choice.
2. Build UC on the foundation of your document-centric software applications. When the communications needs of your workflows are primarily document-centric collaborations, this is probably the best choice.
3. Build UC on the foundation of your enterprise business application software. When the communications must occur within a specific context and according to repeatable, auditable workflows, this is probably the best choice.
It is possible to provide option three, the communications-enabled applications option, by integrating the platforms from options 1 or 2 with those applications.
You probably already realize that more than one option may be needed in your enterprise. The consumer-focused contact center sure looks like an option 1 environment. The collaboration-based research, development and marketing departments sure look like an option 2 environment. Workflows or usage profiles requiring transaction speed, precision, and auditability such as in healthcare, financial services, and perhaps some functions such as manufacturing, logistics, sales or services, look like an option 3 environment. As suggested in this post, UC is probably going to be an environment of "AND", such as option 1 and option 2, rather than an environment of "OR."
To give you the most for your time and money, here's what you'll find at this workshop session:
* A short introduction to UC and the three options shown above.
* A panel focusing on Option 2, document-centric-based UC, and including their abilities to deliver communications-enabled applications needed in Option 3. The panel comprises five of the top players in the Option 2 category: Microsoft's Lync/Skype product team, IBM's Social/Connections/Sametime product team, Oracle's Communications business unit, HP's UC Services team, and AudioCodes' UC gateways and accessories team. This group will provide a full 45-minute session on capabilities and the rationale for choosing their solutions.
* A panel focusing on Option 1, real-time communications-based UC, and including their abilities to deliver communications-enabled applications needed in Option 3. This panel also comprises five of the top players in the Option 1 category: Avaya's UC team; Cisco's Cloud UC team; NEC's UC team; Unify's UC architect; and HP's IP-PBX and Mobility integration services team. This group will provide a full 45-minute session on capabilities and the rationale for choosing their solutions.
* A presentation segment that recaps the panels and provides real-life, case study examples of how other enterprises found their UC opportunities and made their choices of options 1 and 2. This segment will also include a decision flowchart representing the most common UC Option choices made by our UniComm Consulting clients. In addition, we will redefine the ROI of UC, with real-life calculations showing how to multiply the returns by investing on returns (IOR).
Finally, since we know it is Wednesday afternoon, for those EC14 enterprise attendees who are present at the end, we will have two special prizes--a Starbucks card for all of you and a special drawing for the one grand prize winner, who can choose between an Apple iPad Mini, a Microsoft Surface RT, and a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Those are all prizes I would like to win and I hope you would, too.
Looking forward to seeing you at this really essential UC session at Enterprise Connect Orlando 2014!
