CIO

Remember ROI?

Ah, the ‘Good Ole Days’. Remember when business decisions and investments could be made based on ROI (return on investment). If a business invests $1 million in new manufacturing equipment that helps them produce higher quality widgets faster, thereby increasing output and bringing in $200,000 a month more in revenue, then the investment pays for itself in 5 months and after that its all gravy. Simple enough.

The problem is that many of the business decisions and investments on the table these days do not fit into ROI calculations. Investing in network security does not generate revenue. It just (hopefully) protects you from losing money. Investing in process automation does not generate revenue. It (hopefully) makes processes more efficient resulting in cost savings per process execution which reflects back to the bottom line. Unified communications is sort of in the same boat.

In and of itself, UC won’t generally make money. What it will (hopefully) do if implemented properly is allow employees to work more efficiently and be more productive. It will allow employees to collaborate more effectively and help to generate team synergy where it wasn’t possible before. It will enable the business to respond to market pressures and customer needs more agilely. UC is a tremendous investment, but companies need to understand the big picture and both implement and use the tools effectively. Oh, and don’t try to justify the investment with a straight ROI measurement. Your CFO probably won’t cut a check based on that argument.

Corporate Culture and ROI

Unified Communications is many things to many people. Many organizations (and even some experts) are still struggling to define what it is, what it isn’t, what are the features and benefits, and what are the pitfalls. Arguments can be made about how it will streamline communications and allow the company to be more productive and more efficient, but that assumes it is properly implemented and used. Where the proverbial ‘rubber meets the road’, the true measure of ROI for the UC investment will be based in large part on how well the company educates its users and transforms the corporate culture so that the users understand how to leverage the new tools effectively. Investing in a unified communications infrastructure without training the employees to use it effectively is like having a race car that nobody knows how to drive. Evangelyze Communications, a Microsoft Gold Partner and Voice Premier Partner, understands this need and has developed an end-user training course organizations can use to educate their users and transform the communicatios culture to make sure employees take advantage of the UC tools at their disposal.

Nortel Interactive Communications Platform

One of the next big frontiers for Unified Communications is integrating UC functionality into call centers or customer support departments. Granted, most organizations are still struggling to manage the original frontier of how to deploy UC in the first place and realize the values and benefits it delivers. But, the ability to leverage those same benefits and increased efficiency can really translate to ROI when you are talking about how hundreds or thousands of calls are routed for customer support centers. Nortel has introduced their Interactive Communications Platform, or ICP, which provides Web 2.0 style widgets that companies can incorporate into their web sites which will provide customers with the ability to initiate instant messaging sessions with company representatives, or use a click to call function which will automatically initiate a call back from the customer support center to the customer. Evangelyze Communications has also developed a click to chat utility that links with the Office Communicator instant messaging functionality to allow customers to chat in real-time with Evangelyze Communications representatives and get answers to their questions.

The Value of VoIP

For new companies or old companies building new facilities, the value of VoIP is easier to define and the return on investment can be realized much quicker. Deploying only one infrastructure- the network infrastructure- for voice and data, rather than an IP network for data and separate wiring and infrastructure for voice presents immediate cost savings. For existing businesses, the value is still there, but removing and replacing an already present voice network is a harder sell in terms of ROI. As this article points out, there is value in VoIP, but businesses need to look carefully at the costs of licensing and the actual handset phones they will need. More importantly, to more accurately determine the value or ROI, the business needs to look not just at the ‘now’, but also project how they will grow and expand over the next 2 to 3 years and what the additional investment will be. On the other hand, VoIP is not an island an the sum total of the value of VoIP does not rest in the VoIP itself. VoIP is also a stepping stone to more comprehensive and robust unified communications solutions which can make the business more efficient and boost productivity, increasing the value of VoIP even further.

Quantifying the Value of UC

The features and benefits of unified communications sound great, but for most businesses you have to be able to demonstrate and quantify the actual return on investment. The fact that it is “very cool” does little for the bottom line. But, what if you could tell the CFO, or the Board of Directors that it will reduce the cost of communications by 10%, or that employee productivity will go up by 10%, or that customer satisfaction will increase by 21%? That might make a more solid case for UC. A recent study by Dimension Data shows just that. For more about the Dimension Data study, check out this article from Customer Strategy magazine.

Defining Unified Communications

What is UC? A recent exchange between Information Week’s Eric Krapf and one of his readers illustrates some of the confusion that exists in the general population. In a nutshell, Eric had stated in a prior article that adoption of unified communications is progressing slowly. A reader responded to say that everything is “unified communications”- YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and that all of these services and technologies represent the convergence of communications concepts to provide unified communications. I agree with Eric’s reply though. Those things are an example of technology convergence on another level and they are integral to Web 2.0, but they are not ‘unified communications’ in the sense we generally refer to. As Krapf points out, when the press refers to ‘unified communications’ what they really mean is enterprise unified communications- or bringing communications technologies together in a way that makes users more productive and business more efficient.

Information Overload

Unified Communications helps companies to communicate more effectively and efficiently. It is also seen by many as being always connected and never being able to be unavailable. By phone, email, voicemail, instant messaging, from your computer, your cell phone, your laptop, or any web-based portal, workers can access tools and communicate. But, what happens when they don’t want to be available? This article from TechTarget’s SearchUnifiedCommunications examines the issues and some potential solutions. In my opinion, education is a key ingredient. Many organizations jump on the technology bandwagon, but don’t give their workers the information and the education they need to use the tools effectively. Tools like Microsoft’s Office Communicator (and its portable counterpart Office Communicator Mobile) enable workers to communicate anywhere, any time. However, users can also control that access. They can set their Presence to Do Not Disturb. They can configure the level of access for their contacts so that key people- team members, managers- can see their true availability, while the rest of the world sees their Away. When calls come in via Microsoft UC Voice, the worker can send them straight to voicemail, or right-click and port them to email or voicemail if they are not available to take the call. In order to realize the benefits of effective and efficient communications, organizations need to provide end-user training in the proper use of the tools and how to work with the more advanced capabilities as well.

Integrating Avaya with Microsoft UC

One of the promises of unified communications, particularly Microsoft Unified Communications, is the ability to leverage the existing telecommunications infrastructure. Selling UC to upper management and proving the ROI is significantly more difficult if it means ripping out and disposing of the entire existing communications infrastructure to replace it with a new UC infrastructure. Avaya wants to make that integration and incremental adoption that much easier by providing detailed guidance for making it happen with Extend the Value of Microsoft Office Applications with Avaya Unified Communications.

New Internet Tools From Microsoft

Microsoft is taking off the gloves to do battle with Google. They are going head to head on Internet search, Internet advertising, and web browser toolbars. It is hard to imagine Microsoft playing the role of underdog, but in these areas Microsoft is stepping out of their dominant arena and facing Google on Google’s home turf so to speak. Microsoft has unveiled adCenter, their answer to Google AdSense. Like AdSense, adCenter lets companies or individuals market their products and services via the web based on targeted keywords. As an incentive, Microsoft is letting users start adCenter accounts for as little as $5 and they are throwing in an additional free $50 worth of advertising. Sign Up for a Microsoft adCenter Account, and get your message out to a potential 97 million customers. With the browser toolbar, Microsoft has updated the Windows Live Toolbar to version 3.0 and they have added some cool new features. Users can initiate a search from anywhere on the web page, or highlight information on a web page to get more details. You can preview maps, weather, or stock data from the Windows Live Toolbar, and add custom buttons for quick and easy access to the features and information you use most. In addition to the pop-up blocker features found in most browser toolbars, Microsoft also provides extra security to help protect your web surfing from phishing scams or malware attacks. Click here to download Windows Live Toolbar for free.

Google Rumored to Develop 10Gbps Switches

When you’re an Internet juggernaut like Google, you can’t let simple things like the fact that a technology hasn’t been invented get in your way. Google has to transport a lot of data from Point A to Point B within their data center very quickly in order to work all of the magic they do that keeps the users coming back. The mortal world of networking has 1Gbps Ethernet networks, but that is the max for now. IEEE is working on developing both 40Gbps and 100Gbps standards, but it could be years before the standards are ratified and actual, functioning equipment hits the streets. Iconic organizations like Google can’t be sitting around, twiddling their thumbs waiting for standards to be ratified. The rumor is that their is evidence to suggest that Google has developed their own 10Gbps switches in-house for their data centers. Check out this Networkworld.com article for more about the story.