Are you ready for Unified Communications? Let me be very straightforward, the entire enterprise market will adopt Unified Communications or UC in time. The reason and reality is that IT departments will not have a choice. UC will come at you from employees, IT vendors, service providers, system integrators and IT consultants. It will creep into applications and networks as you upgrade to the next operating system, patch or software image. There´s a high chance that you already have pockets of UC deployments now but just don´t know it. The reason I am so confident about UC is that its value is so compelling and large that enterprises will not resist UC but embrace it as it makes communications fun and improves productivity. Here´s one example of why UC is a fait accompli.

On January 17th I was in NY at the Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA) CEO event where Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft and Mike Zafirovski, CEO Nortel re-affirmed their commitment to UC and communications-enabled business processes (CEBP). The event was held at the Saturday Night Live NBC studio, which was very cool and attended by well over 100 customers, reporters and analysts. There was buzz at the event and the buzz was real as the many CEOs I talked to were intrigued and wanted to learn more about UC and its value. But for the CEOs in this room, they will have to wait a year before the Microsoft/Nortel alliance delivers on UC. Yes, there was the UC Integrated Brach product announced but it will not ship until Q407. There was also Unified Messaging that links Nortel´s CS 1000 with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 via SIP, but not until late Q207. Conferencing was also announced that extends the features of Nortel´s Multimedia Conferencing to Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 but not until Q407. While this event was more sizzle than steak, ICA is delivering real value to the market. Microsoft/Nortel is demonstrating UC in over 100 centers around the globe. They are educating customers and demonstrating their commitment to UC, which brings me back to my point. IT executives will not have a choice as to whether or not they will deploy UC, but only when.

My recommendation to executive IT is that you start organizing now to fully leverage UC and CEBP. CIOs should consider creating a Chief Communications Officer (CCO) position tasked with the architecture development and oversight of unified communication and communications-enabled business process projects. In fact, the Chief Communications Officer should have dotted line responsibility with business unit managers and review input.

I´d like to offer a definition of Unified Communications and CEBP, identify its value then follow that with a list of recommendations that will get you ready for UC.

Unified Communications Defined

Many companies are using the term Unified Communications (UC) to describe different things. Some companies use UC to describe the integration of a desktop launch point for communications. Some use UC to describe communications-enabled business process. Some use UC to describe both. To enable the most complete understanding of the value of UC, I address the broadest definition encompassing both of these aspects.

Unified communications can be thought of as a super-set of IP-based communications. IP-based tools, such as web conferencing, audio conferencing, and video conferencing, unified messaging and instant messaging, have been around for a while. Unified communications is the super-set of all of these tools accessed through a unified method. That is, access to people and information is managed through one interface; no longer does the user need to have separate tools to drive separate communication applications. Access is integrated so that from an instant messenger chat session, for example, a single ?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ??¨click-to-call?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ¬¨?? or ?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ??¨click-to-conference?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ¬¨?? button will conference somebody else in. In the near future, unified communications will be brought into other business applications to enhance work flow in the communications process. But for now, UC is the coming together of various collaborative applications and communications tools which have existed for a long time.

For the end-user, UC is an experience that simplifies work and increases productivity by reducing delay in accessing and communicating with others.

Why Should Organizations Consider Unified Communications?

There are a number of reasons to consider UC today. Most significant are its ROI and productivity-enhancing benefits. Organizations allocate large sums of capital deploying and training on a wide range of communication applications such as mobile communications, instant messaging, voice mail, email, voice and conferencing. The return on investment for all these disparate communication silos is questionable. What imputes the return is the fact that when an IT staff deploys communications tools today they are all managed separately and require users to become familiar with multiple interfaces. A manual conversion process is introduced, increasing communication delay and stymieing productivity.

With most UC solutions, IT staff can leverage existing investments in communications and not only achieve ROI quickly but actually improve its value to the organization by providing a simpler, unified interface to frequently used communications services. For example, choosing ?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ??¨click-to-call?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ¬¨?? over an IP network that is integrated with the Microsoft Outlook application connects a call instantly from an email session. This action brings together the common directory and presence manager to streamline access to individuals.

In addition to the return on investment possibilities, UC solutions enable companies to communicate with customers, employees, suppliers and partners more effectively. Consider this example of someone trying to locate another person for an important discussion.

If I´m trying to communicate with you, first I need to have a good understanding of where you are, what communicating device you have and if you´re available. I might have to randomly try a range of different numbers or locations. A unified interface would speed that process up by showing me if you´re available and what device you´re using, thus streamlining the way I communicate with you.

According to Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President of Yankee Group´s Enterprise Research, organizations that have deployed unified communication solutions have been rewarded with double-digit improvements in productivity. For those forward-looking companies there is a possibility of transforming business. Companies have been trying to solve the same kinds of problems for the last 50 years: how do I better interact with my customers? How do I provide a memorable experience for them? How do I communicate more efficiently with colleagues? How do I provide information sooner? Unified communications is a strategy to move closer to these business requirements and ideals.

Problems and Benefits Addressed by Unified Communications

There are the two key problems and benefits that UC addresses: individual and corporate productivity.

For the individual user, unified communications reduces delay experienced when transitioning between communications devices. Mr. Kerravala of the Yankee Group estimates that productivity can improve by 15-20% per day by eliminating these transitions. For example, to retrieve voice mail, a user needs to pick up a telephone, dial digits and navigate through a series of voice prompts, then take notes on messages; then he or she may check email via another interface and then may receive a phone call and be required to talk while in the middle of writing or reviewing a document. To make this workflow more seamless and to retrieve time back in a worker´s day would be a huge productivity gain to any organization.

At the corporate level, unified communications can improve a business´s processes by advancing its ability to communicate with customers, employees, suppliers and partners more effectively. The best example of the value brought by unified communications at the organizational level is that of hospital operations. In an emergency situation, which requires a highly skilled doctor(s) who is not in the vicinity of the emergency, a nurse who has a tablet PC that is connected to a unified communication environment can see all the doctors available. With one click, the doctor with the right skill set pops up and can be reached by an IM, voice or video session. Simultaneously the patient´s vital life signs, medications and history pop up on the doctor´s end-point so that the doctor can now assist the nurse in this crisis by bringing all the professionals required to address it. The key attribute in this scenario is the linking of all the back-end hospital systems and patient instrumentation and the integration of communication into business process, which allows hospital staff to respond quickly to a real-time critical event.

Consider the following quote from John D. Halamka, MD, CIO, Harvard Medical School:

?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ??¨Every year 98,000 patients die due to preventable medical errors in the business process of care. That’s equivalent to a 747 crashing every day, killing all aboard. If hospitals were airlines, would you fly??¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ¬¨??

According to the Wall Street Journal, the majority of these preventable medical errors are due to poor communications between hospital staff. Consider the value created by eliminating a large fraction of these preventable medical errors. What value is created for the patients and their loved ones? What value does that bring to that hospital´s reputation? What does that do to the hospital´s insurance premiums? The value is immeasurably high.

The market place is just starting to wrap its mind around a higher level of value and benefit that unified communications is going to be delivering as to how work is accomplished. Apply the above scenario to a man-made or natural disaster, or the normal course of daily business, and the conclusion is clear: every industry segment will be rewarded when it deploys UC. In short, organizations will be equipped to be much more adaptive and responsive to events which trigger a needed response.

How Does An Enterprise Know When It Is Ready For Unified Communications?

Most companies are ready. IT organizations first have to build the underlying IP network infrastructure, then an IP telephony foundation upon which to deliver these applications. Many organizations find that there are elements of an IP infrastructure, telephony and UC already taking place. There are business units and workgroups that may be using unified instant messaging, conferencing and collaborative applications. IT staff needs to gather and manage these requirements as soon as possible and be able to roll out a consistent unified tool to your organization versus being burdened with having to integrate or rationalize a variety of non-interoperable end-user based deployments. Not having a vision, architecture or roadmap leads to much greater operational spend and, in short, a much bigger headache to manage down the road. From a readiness point of view, most companies are ready. But, IT staff needs to have a solid IP foundation on which to be able to build unified communications.

What causes some organizations to pause in their UC roll-out is the question of whether the industry is ready to deliver UC. Some IT departments wonder if they should wait for the industry to settle on a single UC approach as there have been numerous new announcements over the past six months. The answer is that IT departments do not need to wait. If an IT department has made an IP telephony deployment decision, then most of its unified communications activities are going to be centered on that particular solution. A company´s IP telephony vendor will be the primary communications and UC framework for that firm. UC will be a multi-vendor overall solution, but the bottom line is that IT staff does not need to wait for all the vendors to sort out their relationships and inter-working arrangements. To this end, IT staff should continue to push its selected vendor into multi-vendor interoperability testing with other IT suppliers. The grand goal of unified communications would be to unify the communications experience across multiple vendors, multiple devices, multiple networks, versus a single vendor. It is important for IT staff to start UC deployments now, certainly to get a handle on UC, because you will have rogue deployments which make it harder to get a handle on full deployment down the road. IT staff should start getting familiar with UC technology, using it, and exploring how it can benefit both end-users and overall corporate productivity. There is no reason to wait.

It is highly recommended that organizations consider adding a new position to their IT staff: a Chief Communications Officer (CCO) position tasked with working closely with business units to gather UC and business process efficiency requirements. The CCO would also be responsible for architecture development, planning, design, vendor selection and oversight of unified communication and communications-enabled business process projects. The CCO should have dotted line responsibility with business unit managers providing input on salary and performance reviews.

How Should An Enterprise Progress Towards Unified Communications?

IT can start today piloting and deploying to leverage the benefits of the vendors you have now. The industry has the technology for the underlying IP foundation today. IT staff need to start with one department, a branch, a functional unit–an area that you feel can get the most benefit from UC. Learn from those experiences by understanding risks and associated mitigation so that deployment is predictable and conformable. Then a larger roll-out can be planned and implemented across the company. Over time, you can take advantage of additional technology advances which the industry will be offering. If you wait, you can convince yourself to wait forever. The bottom line is this: If an organization does not implement UC it will be left behind as its competitors outperform its operations.

Recommendations

In this Lippis Report we have defined unified communications, identified its value and benefits and provided IT departments with concepts and deployment suggestions. We offer IT staff the following recommendations as they consider UC as an important part of their overall IT strategy to drive business value.

Key IT Staff Recommendations:

1. Before deploying UC, IT staff should assess the readiness of real time communication flows across their IP network infrastructure.
2. UC deployments will be multi-vendor, therefore, ensure that your chosen vendor is committed to working with other key industry players and standards organizations.
3. Most UC deployments will be build upon their IP telephony software, therefore, ensure that your IP telephony vendor has a strong UC commitment and can execute against their UC vision.
4. As communications enablement will have a profound impact on business operations, we suggest that your chosen UC vendor have a strong commitment, strategy and communications enablement product roadmap.
5. There is no need to wait for some industry event before starting to deploy UC solutions; there is enough mature technology for IT staff to start now.
6. Consider UC pilots within workgroups and business units before wide spread deployments
7. For global 2000 concerns, professional services will play an important role in UC deployments. For these firms consider adding additional weight in selecting a UC vendor with a significant and proven professional services organization which can deliver a range of design, planning, implementation, management and monitoring services.
8. Consider developing a ROI (Return on Investment) and a TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) UC model for your organization as industry standards have not emerged. Individual productivity advances in the range of 15% to 20% have been attributed to UC. These figures should be independently calculated for your organization.
9. Expand your thinking of UC beyond the desktop to include mobile devices, laptops plus all modes and modalities of communications and where they take place. In essence the UC experience should be independent of workplace environment.
10. CIOs should consider creating a Chief Communications Officer (CCO) position tasked with the architecture development and oversight of unified communication and communications-enabled business process projects. The Chief Communications Officer should have dotted line responsibility with business unit managers and review input.

Posted 5 February 2007 at 2:12 pm under Lippis Report, Unified Communications & Comm.-Enabled Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.