The Lippis Report

The UC market is rapidly moving toward a cloud service for the small to medium business (SMB) market, thanks to Siemens Enterprise Communications and others offering powerful communications and office productivity software delivered as a service. Cloud services offer the SMB market with some of the same IT services that large enterprises enjoy, but without the complexity and cost. For example, Siemens has been working with Google to offer its OpenScape Cloud Service that integrates features into Google applications, like click to call/conference, etc. In this Lippis Report podcast, I talk with Paul McMillan, Director UC Technical Vision & Strategy at Siemens Enterprise Communications, about the SMB market and how its OpenScape Cloud Services is offering new, innovative solutions that allows these firms to be more competitive and agile.

By Siemens Enterprise Communications

One of the greatest obstacles of virtualization is the assignment and allocation of appropriate network resources as virtual machines (VMs) are provisioned amongst diverse network locations. Virtualizing a single data center introduces a number of challenges, not the least of which necessitates moves, adds and changes of virtual images, which adds network provisioning complexity and impacts IT administration workload. Virtualized data center networks need to provide automation, visibility and mobility to support multi-vendor storage, virtualization software and server environments.

Find out how by downloading this white paper:

By Siemens Enterprise Communications

In the U.S., a Pacific Northwest state is saving almost $2 million per year by deploying IP Least Cost Routing. A New York-based insurance company has shifted 70,000 calls per week onto its new internal SIP network, saving about 13,000 hours per month of voice traffic which previously had gone to a PSTN carrier. Meanwhile, in Europe, a large manufacturing company is saving 35% of its inter-site communication costs by moving to SIP Trunking.

SIP Trunking is a well-proven technology, with many carriers offering the service, both domestically and internationally. Typical savings from using SIP Trunking can range from 25% to 50%.

Find out how to use SIP and save by downloading this paper

By Siemens Enterprise Communications

This white paper examines the requirements for and use of Intelligent Branches and Gateways for Enterprise, Service Provider and Cloud Applications. It explains how modern communications products can provide scalable and feature-rich communications. The paper also shows how Intelligent Branch Solutions save significant bandwidth to the Branch and explores some of the new features required for next-generation Intelligent Branch solutions.

Find out how by downloading this white paper

Contact center technology is being virtualized at the agent desktop and server levels offering favorable economics, agent flexibility and a centralized data center deployment design. For Siemens Enterprise Communications, a leader in the Contact Center market, its OpenScape Contact Center V8 software runs on top of a VMware hypervisor. In addition to efficient server deployment V8 adds powerful agent features such as a Web-based agent, supervisor and management desktops making it easier to deploy home-based or remote agents virtually at multiple locations. George Despinic, Global Contact Center Marketing Manager for Siemens Enterprise Communications is my guest as we discuss the company’s OpenScape Contact Center V8 that puts contact center functionality in a virtualized data center offering new design and economic options for contact center deployments.

The Unified Communications (UC) market is changing significantly in terms of how solutions are deployed, services are packaged and systems procured. Siemens addressed all of these areas in one fell swoop with the recently released OpenScape UC Server 2010. Siemens announced new licensing options for endpoints and integrated UC endpoint services in packaged solutions including social media plug-ins such as Twitter. Kathy Heilmann, Director, Large Enterprise Voice and UC Solutions Marketing at Siemens Enterprise Communications joined me to talk about the new rules of UC procurement and its value to IT business leaders.

By Aberdeen Group

With so many potential points of contact: desk phones, soft phones, voice messaging, e-mail, video conferencing, texting, social media, mobile devices etc., how can we ever actually be reached within a reasonable timeframe? How does UC transform an organization’s communications infrastructure, improve efficiency, optimize work processes, and provide for business continuity and compliance? To find out, in February and March 2010, Aberdeen Group surveyed 184 organizations in more then 28 countries around the world. This paper is the result of that effort.

Find out what Aberdeen learned by downloading this whitepaper.

In their recently released OpenScape UC Server 2010, Siemens has incorporated application virtualization allowing UC applications such as OpenScape Voice, OpenScape Branch, OpenScape Media Server etc., to load on standard compute hardware avoiding the installation, configuration and maintenance of running multiple complex software stacks, operating systems and applications. Paul McMillan, Director UC Technical Vision & Strategy at Siemens Enterprise Communications, joins me to talk about what virtualization in a UC environment delivers to IT business leaders as we dive into the details of UC Server 2010.
Find out by listening to this podcast.

In late March of 2009 Siemens Enterprise Communication announced a UC cloud service where it has placed its OpenScape Voice and UC applications on Amazon’s EC2 cloud infrastructure. This is significant and important as it’s the first time that a UC application is available in the cloud and offered in a SaaS model. This represents a new and fundamentally different channel to address the SMB market. The hope is that UC delivered as a SaaS offers a radically different delivery and price model and may very well be the model enterprises have been waiting for to consume UC on a massive scale. Paul McMillan Director of UC Technical Vision & Strategy at Siemens Communications is my guest as we talk about UC in the cloud and offered as a SaaS.

By Mainstay Partners

In 2007 Siemens Enterprise Communications deployed its OpenScape UC Server at its own offices to both reap its benefits and measure costs. Siemens commissioned an internal business case analysis, which concluded that the project could cut communications costs by up to 30%, saving millions each year. In less than six months Siemens deployed OpenScape UC Server at its North American operations, linking 21 offices and connecting more than 1,900 employees, including some 500 home-based teleworkers. To quantify the benefits post deployment, Siemens asked independent advisory firm Mainstay Partners to conduct a financial assessment of the project.

This white paper contains Mainstay’s findings of $35.5m in cost savings and productivity gain. Download it now.

Of the original 500 S&P companies just 82 remain. The pace of change and corporate flexibility required to keep up continues to dramatically accelerate. Both McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group say one-third of companies in the top quarter of their industry failed to maintain their competitive position during the 2000 economic slowdown. Five years later, just 10% returned to their same competitive position. The Business Roundtable reports 45% of CEOs expect declining sales over the next six months. The bottom line is that companies which excel figure out how to save money but also prepare for the rebound. Mark Straton, Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing at Siemens Communications is my guest as we discuss three imperatives for communications management during a tough economy that will ensure your company maintains its competitive position during and after the economic slowdown.

By Siemens Enterprise Communications

This paper defines different telecommuting models and shows how companies are telecommuting across the globe. Lastly, it will demonstrate how Siemens Enterprise Communications Group has significantly cut expenses by adopting green telecommuting and how you can do the same.

Download this white paper to find out how to reduce cost by leveraging telecommuting.

By Siemens Enterprise Communications

“As in every downturn, who succeeds and who fails is likely to be determined not by what costs are cut, but how they are cut and above all which ones are not cut.”

The Economist magazine 22 November 2008

Recession is upon us. Business and technology leaders are hurriedly looking for places to scale back, while defining strategies for surviving – or even getting ahead – during the economic downturn. This paper addresses three key imperatives for communications management for a tough economy:

Streamline – How to cope with reduced budgets and staffing without impeding business operations

Compete – Using technology to maintain speed, innovation and customer service with fewer staff

Prepare – Ensuring your business can scale up and strike fast at the earliest signs of opportunity

The paper identifies key points for executives to consider in making communications reductions and investments and offers an array of solutions supported by real-world case studies.

Find out how by downloading this white paper.

By SIS International Research & Siemens Enterprise Communications

This white paper outlines the findings of a study sponsored by Siemens Enterprise Communications and prepared by SIS International Research. It discusses and quantifies the hidden cost of communications barriers and latency that small- and medium-sized businesses in 8 different countries, across 8 different verticals, and with up to 400 employees experience in their daily business activities.