Aspect

Building a Successful UC Strategy

I recently wrote an article about taking a step-by-step, “eat the elephant one bite at a time” approach to unified communications. Unified communications is a hot concept with almost ‘Holy Grail’ like expectations for many companies. It certainly has the ability to cut costs, improve productivity, increase efficiency and more, but it takes some upfront planning to get it right.

Jamie Ryan, Senior Vice President of IT and Chief Information Officer of Aspect, wrote this eWeek.com article about building a successful unified communications strategy which similarly stresses that “evaluating the technology necessary for a rollout and developing a timeline is key to the success of any UC strategy.”

Ryan goes on to discuss the need to assess the underlying network infrastructure to make sure it is capable of providing the bandwidth and quality necessary for unified communications and upgrading the network if need be.

The article provides an interesting and informative look at the approach that Aspect took to planning and deploying unified communications internally. The process followed by Aspect can help you to understand the sorts of questions that should be considered and pitfalls to avoid as you explore implementing unified communications for your organization.

Aspect Unified IP 6.6 Introduces Microsoft UC Integration

Back in June I wrote a post about the newly formed partnership between Aspect Software and Microsoft. Aspect was already an established leader in providing IP-based solutions for call centers, and Microsoft is an established leader in providing unified communications solutions. The obvious goal of their union was to bring the features and benefits of unified communications into the IP-based call center, and provide a new market for Microsoft unified communications by expanding the capabilities of their UC offering to address the call center.

Aspect recently announced that this December they will roll out Unified IP v6.6. According to the article “Aspect Unified IP 6.6 is designed to offer an ask-an-expert capability using the instant messaging and presence technology available in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. This newest feature enables Aspect Unified IP to seamlessly integrate to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to specifically request real-time presence information.”

Aspect Dives Into UC Services Delivery

Aspect, a leader in providing IP communications solutions for call centers, partnered with Microsoft earlier this year and is hard at work in collaboration with Microsoft to integrate what they offer for call centers with what Microsoft offers for unified communications. Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, projected for release in February of 2009, includes a variety of new features that will provide additional capabilities for call center environments. As the partnership evolves and the tools offered by Aspect and Microsoft are integrated, Aspect has now announced a new professional services and systems integration arm to help customers with architecting, implementing, and administering a Microsoft Unified Communications infrastructure.

Report: Unified Communications in the Call Center

The Aberdeen Group conducted a survey earlier this year regarding the use of unified communications technologies in the call center. According to this Marketwatch.com article, one of the authors of the report said “Unified communications is as much about the business, finding the right business process to UC-enable, and finding the right return on investment for the right departments. A small number — 23% — have some form of unified communications implemented, but an astounding 50% of customers surveyed are or will be evaluating unified communications in the next eighteen months.” Aberdeen reports usually cost money, but Aspect Software and Avaya have sponsored this report so that you can download it for free (until September 26).

Unified Communications in the Call Center

Microsoft has a unified communications offering for small and medium businesses (SMB) with Response Point. They also have a more robust solution for enterprises providing even more features, functionality, and power for unified communications with Microsoft UC. What they do’t have, or at least didn’t have, is a unified communications solution for call centers, or other businesses that rely on communications more than standard businesses at an almost exponential level. The have formed a partnership with Aspect, a company that focuses on delivering innovative solutions for customer service and call centers. Combining the power and flexibility of Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007 with Aspect Unified IP delivers next-generation communications for call centers. There are still some hurdles to cross. Aside from delivering unified communications capabilities to the call center, the solution also has to offer high availability and resiliency to ensure communications are not disrupted even in the event of a server, or complete site catastrophe.