Deploying Unified Communication is not simple

Many of my friends know that unified communication has many advantages, such as low cost and easy management and maintenance. However, it is not very simple to deploy Unified Communication. So where is its simplicity reflected? Let's take a look at the article below.

It allows employees to use desktop phone calls, mobile phones, instant messages, and video conferences at the same time, and easily switch between them, with productivity and productivity improved ...... It all sounds wonderful.

However, Sonny Reid, CEO of the West Hartford global network of building automation company in West Connecticut, North America, concluded that deploying a unified communication system is not that easy. "Obviously, we are facing a huge challenge, that is, we must place all our staff on the same communication platform," he said ."

A Unified Communication system integrated with multiple communication technologies can help employees to the maximum extent. For example, you can use voice information to reply to emails, read voice emails, and transfer real-time information to phone calls, remote Desktop calls ...... The biggest challenge is how to integrate incompatible technologies in the organization without confusion.

Elizabeth Herrel, analyst at Forrester Research Institute, said areas of problems during deployment include system interoperability, infrastructure preparation, and user training. If these problems cannot be fully solved, Enterprise communications may eventually fail until they are paralyzed.

Herrel warned: "Deploying Unified Communication is not a single solution, but a process. If you do not have a clear understanding of how Unified Communication can benefit the entire community, its benefits may not be realized ."

Jayanth Angl, an analyst at the London Information Technology Research Group, said that some infrastructure problems may disrupt the deployment of unified communications, for example, the network cannot carry new communication streams. This is why the Unified Communication project needs to carefully plan and conduct a large number of tests.

Reid stressed based on past experience that the reason for successful deployment of Unified Communication is mainly due to the focus on details, such as helping end users understand how to access and use various communication modes of the system. "If a major error occurs, the root cause is that there is no detailed preliminary plan," he said ."

Phased deployment: it divides the deployment of Unified Communication into several limited stages, and also helps Reid avoid many major accidents. In the early days, he decided to deploy Unified Communication Technology at Legrand's global offices one by one. The experience gained from the system performance and user training has produced lasting benefits. He said: "We make full use of our experience to find the best way to produce the best benefit at the lowest cost ."

Joseph T. Massey, chief information officer at Atlanta's Emory University, said many technologies involved in unified communication, including complex combinations of fixed and mobile Voip, unified messaging, video conferencing, and other related technologies. During the successful deployment, system operation knowledge and end user requirements are the most important. "The most difficult thing is how the learning system works," he said. Once the staff have a full understanding of the Unified Communication structure and user needs, the rest of the work is to discover and solve possible problems at work ."

However, it takes time to acquire the necessary knowledge, he adds, "the process of discovering a problem may last for weeks. Perfection is not easy. If enterprises want to avoid the collapse of the communication system, such long-term efforts are necessary ."

Jim o'brien, Director of Technical Services at the St. Louis ReHabCare Group, gave an example of how he used existing enterprise technologies to prevent start-up failures of PBX and telephones, reducing confusion for end users and reducing costs. "When we introduced PBX phones, we combined the old and new telephone systems with line cards so that they could communicate with each other. We have achieved a perfect transition, instead of trying to purchase a large number of new phone systems, replacing the other with one ."

Bob Haldane, an operation analyst at Payworks Canada, said that deploying unified communications is easy to manage and he has avoided many problems. "We didn't hire too many Linux technicians, So we avoided Linux products during deployment ." He said.

He believes that it is very important to find a vendor dedicated to providing fast and reliable technical support. "If anything goes wrong, make sure you have a phone number that can be contacted at any time," he said. "If we do not understand the internal principles of the product, technicians can at least help us to run properly and resume our work ."

Angl stressed that the lack of necessary training will eventually lead to user confusion and lost in a system environment they are not familiar. "Using end-user-oriented technologies, there is an appropriate service mechanism and support process to ensure that user training is part of the entire deployment, which is crucial ." He said. "If you don't get the user's approval, or the user doesn't use these new features, everything has no value ."

Reid was frank and he experienced major mistakes due to lack of training. "We have learned the lessons we have paid for it. If I can do it again, training is my favorite job ."