Pushing the productivity buttons
The promise of technology in the workplace was that it would make life easier when it came to difficult or boring tasks, helping us achieve goals more quickly and work more effectively with fewer mistakes.
With the growth of networks and the convergence of voice and data, expectations have only increased and the productivity promise has grown even bigger.
Unified communications (UC) is pitched as the next stage in this haphazard evolution, where the complexity of information and communications technology has sometimes undermined its power to get things done.
Capitalising on the availability of converged IP networks and a new generation of standards based architecture, the theory is that UC’s wide ranging communication tools are ready to profoundly change the way people go about their work.
The scale of the potential shift is already evident in the way people use the internet in their leisure time.
Many of the elements of Web 2.0 – the real-time messaging, the video and the webcams – are here and-now examples of how people are changing the way they interact. Now imagine that transformation extending into the workplace and the way people do their jobs.
IP telephony, video and voice conferencing, e-mail and instant messaging (IM), can be wrapped up with features like presence, which tells you who is on your network and the best way they can be contacted.
A collection of messaging, conferencing and collaboration tools can be mixed and matched to drive productivity. Unified messaging can streamline communication channels by using a single mailbox for voice, e-mail, fax and other media, independent of the access device.
Online collaboration tools let workgroups share and discuss documents over the web, and face-to face meetings become less crucial as virtual meetings take place from the desktop.
Even the most jaded financial controller would surely spot the business benefits of these scenarios.
Presence makes people more contactable; instant collaboration means shorter project lifecycles; while cutting down on travel and face-to-face meetings will save money as well as tick the green agenda box.
More compelling still for the financial controller is the prospect of bringing mobile phone bills under control, using fixed mobile convergence to route cellular traffic over a company’s IP network.
Stephen Mulligan, UC principal at Eircom, sums up the benefits.” UC enables overall cost reduction, faster cycle times and turnaround, higher personal and group productivity and a dramatic reduction in time wastage.”
He said something as simple as presence brought benefits to the desktop and everyday working practices that could be turned into a compel ling business case. In a UC environment, you could check a person’s availability through presence, ask if they can take a call through IM and then activate that call with the click of a mouse.
“Not only is the transaction quicker than looking up and manually dialling the number, you are far more likely to get the person and not have to leave a voice mail, thus removing the traditional delay associated with the dreaded ‘telephone tag’,” he said.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, Irish and British companies, in an IDC survey of chief information officers, sponsored by Colt, identified direct cost savings as crucial when it came to measuring the effectiveness of UC, but the number one perceived gain was increased productivity among employees.
This suggests that vendors have been successful in selling the big idea. Third in the ranking related to client and customer satisfaction.
As for which UC tools had the most appeal, the survey revealed that chief information officers considered calendaring, contact management, fixed voice and collaboration management ahead of other applications.
Mobile voice came in second, while Web 2.0 applications got relatively short shrift.
Switching on the tools
The challenge, however, is getting to the position where a company can start to switch the UC tools on. Gartner describes UC as “a daunting and confusing topic’‘ and recommended a roadmap of incremental implementation, starting out with a thorough audit of what you have in terms of communication infrastructure.
“A high-quality network infrastructure is a prerequisite of a high-quality UC solution,” said Gary Keogh, managing director at Colt Telecom Ireland.
Quoting the IDC report, he said that driving end-user demand was dependent on quality of service issues.
“Network infrastructure is very important,” he said “because any software based UC application is only as reliable as the network infrastructure it is carried over.”
Mulligan expands on the point.” You need a step by-step approach. To get the best out of UC platform you need a good solid network and telephony underneath you. Analysis is warranted on any delta that exists between the current and desired state.”
The bottom line is that it is worth it. The alternative is to stumble on with myriad devices hanging off the network, as more applications are loaded on the system and strung out across multiple locations, putting a strain on the communications infrastructure and the IT team that has to manage it.
Workgroups are often trapped in silos, struggling to communicate effectively and stuck with inflexible work practices.
“When you think about it, UC certainly has its appeal,” said Gavin McCarthy, business development manager at Siemens Enterprise Communications.” Ask any business person and they’ll immediately recognise the challenge associated with managing multiple communications devices and applications, and understand the importance of employee effectiveness and customer satisfaction, and the impact these things have on profits or cash utilisation.”
In a US survey of 500 businesses, Siemens concluded that a fragmented communications infrastructure was costing companies €4,700 per employee per year. So the challenge is to create a single unifying platform, where devices, networks and applications can leverage UC for greater productivity and cost savings.
“This doesn’t necessarily mean a rip-and-replace, as there are tools that can bridge the gaps between the old and the new,” said Stephen Mulligan.
Above the network layer is the directory, most commonly Microsoft’s Active Directory, an administration tool which provides a central database of policies and methods for running applications.
“If this is already in place, the schema may need to be extended slightly to al low for UC functionality within the network,” said Mulligan.
“Then the UC tools can be layered on top as the organisation requires.”
McCarthy agreed on the principal of a phased approach but emphasised that any organisation that opted for UC ideally needed to deploy the technology across the entire organisation to reap the maximum benefits.
“It is possible to deploy IP telephony in ’pockets’ across a company and still experience the benefits, however, having a phased strategy to connect everyone in an organisation to a central UC system is by far the most effective method of rollout.”
The benefits are not just tied to the internal users.
Customers will find the company much more responsive to deal with if the UC functionality is well managed and outward as wel l as inward facing. Cal l centres, for example, will become much more efficient.
“Agents will be able to check the availability of other better-informed agents or experts on their screen at any time and be able to cal l on a workgroup of skilled colleagues instantly at the click of a mouse to help solve a complex problem with a valued customer,” said McCarthy.
The good news for organisations is that they don’t have to start from scratch to build a platform, but they do need a resilient network, ideally IP.
“The basic infrastructure is IP and, once it’s in place, it’s a given that it’s robust,” said Jason Flynn, country manager of Avaya.
“Then the customer has to decide whether it will be networks to IP. Upgrading to a single converged network that can carry voice and data over the same pipe is a relatively easy win that most organisations have under their belt.
The return on investment comes quickly, largely because an organisation with multi sites is able to contain internal phone calls within its own network.
“Many organisations have deployed IP telephony, either for certain locations or functions, and are realising the savings in capital and operational expenditure through the lower costs IP-based communications offer,” said McCarthy.
Fixed mobile convergence solutions, or what Siemens calls Mobile Connect, is another cost-saving win.
“Once you have a wi-fi network in the office, users can come in with a dual mode mobile handset and the wireless Lan will automatically register them on the network,” said McCarthy. “Instead of calls going out over the GSM/ 3G mobile networks, they go out over the corporate infrastructure.”
He said companies could see 30 per cent savings on mobile phone bills.
A fundamental benefit of UC is that employees have a single contact number, the same way they have a single e-mail address, irrespective of device, private branch exchange (PBX), network or location.
“Once you have that single number you can simply choose which device you want to be contacted on, using either a graphical or speech interface,” said McCarthy.
“That device can be anything from an e-mail client to any desk phone anywhere or indeed a Blackberry, iPhone or any dual mode handset.”
These are the easy wins and what McCarthy calls the” plumbing’‘ and the start of the journey that Siemens talks about as a three-way process of optimisation, enhancement and transformation.
“The next step is the transformation phase, where you realise the significant benefits of a mobile workforce, such as real-time collaboration when users have access to all the tools they need to boost productivity and make informed decisions in less time.”
Flynn said that the world had moved on from the days of deploying an ICT solution and hoping for a return.” Cash is king. Al l customers want to know how long it will take to get their investment back.” The good news is that there is low-hanging fruit among the UC tools and Flynn identifies voice, video and mobile solutions as easy bets.
“There are a lot of organisations in Ireland doing lots of travel and getting paid mileage,” he said.” If you implement a simple audio conferencing solution, and then enhance it with video, you will get a very strong return in six to nine months.”
Irish adoption As for where Irish businesses are prepared to make the change, it is still early days but the vendors we talked to have earmarked this year as a watershed. According to McCarthy, Irish organisations are ready for UC deployments but, to date, not many have made the move.
“Some are engaged in pilot programmes for a UC deployment with selected groups in their organisation, but communications strategy has not been at the top of the agenda for every company since the global economic meltdown of 2008. Irish organisations have been more focused on fighting for survival.”
His counter-argument is that the current economic climate may drive UC uptake because it reduces costs and improves productivity when implemented correctly. UC is now approaching the top of what McCarthy calls “the hype curve’‘, and there is a real belief that it can deliver a return on investment that is more important for organisations than ever.
Echoing this belief, a survey of Irish businesses carried out by Cisco showed that 30 per cent of Irish companies cited UC as a high priority this year.
“There is a real buzz about it in the industry at the moment,” said Mulligan.” The bandwidth and technology challenges that we have faced in the past are not such a blocker now. Many companies at the moment are in learning or pilot mode, exploring the benefits for themselves, with many others moving into full rollout mode.”
According to the IDC survey, there was a steady growth in the rollout of UC solutions by Irish businesses between 2008 and mid-2009, but the total number of businesses that have installed UC is still in a minority, at about 25 per cent.
“However, of the 75 per cent of businesses that report that they have not yet installed a solution, almost half have plans to implement UC in the future,” said Keogh.
The report said that “timelines for such implementations taking place vary from business to business, but most organisations view UC as a long term project affecting a firm’s communications culture and transforming business processes’‘.
All of the vendors are chanting the same mantra which has been echoing around the corridors of struggling companies for the last year: invest now to be in a better position when the upturn comes.
UC is part of this pitch. “We see it as a way of giving companies a great competitive advantage,” said Mulligan.
McCarthy echoed this sentiment.” UC may also put an organisation at a distinct advantage in the long run, offering better customer service and ultimately becoming more cost-saving and productivity focused.”
He acknowledged that UC was unlikely to be at the forefront of anybody’s investment plans at the moment, but believed there was an education process to be done by vendors which could change that.
