The True Benefit of Unified Communications and Collaboration

CIO’s are investing in UC&C today, but most do it as an upgrade to their existing email system or their PBX. It really depends on what strategy they buy into. Some companies add UCC features because they meet a really great sales person and are convinced that using UCC will transform their organization. What happens then? Most of the time, very little changes.

Unified Communication has been a term used to reposition “old” technology or to present “new” ways of communicating, which introduced things like Instant Messaging and Presence. However these features did not, for the most part, improve productivity and Return on Investment (ROI) became hard to prove. Many vendors began to talk about soft ROI as a way to prove that the functionality really did pay back, just not in hard cash as many other IT-projects did. But there is a way to succeed in your UCC projects and really make them transformational.

As a channel partner you need to understand how you should transform your message and offering to help CIO’s succeed in their work.

How to make UCC transformational

Buying UCC is the easiest thing in the world today. You can choose to buy it from your email system vendor (Microsoft, IBM etc) or from your PBX vendor (Cisco, Avaya, Aastra, Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent etc). Basically they offer the same fundamentals for UCC, but from their point of view, based on their systems.

But to ensure you get the right long term success with your choice of system, there are some points I would like to recommend you work with.

1. I recommend that a work group identify what they want to solve in the organization. For example, one multinational organization I worked with wanted to build a “one-company” way of working across units. In order to build a strategy you need a clear understanding of the current state of your organization and where you want to be. Measure as much as you can!
2. The CIO and the IT group works with suppliers to understand what technology is available to address these goals and create a roadmap. Most of these projects are not implemented in a one-time shot, but under a longer period of time.
3. To achieve the type of transformational projects you want, you need to keep four dimensions in focus, Technology, People, Workspace and Process. As CIO your organization becomes the coordinating, or project leading organization, and responsible for delivering the technology that shall support the change.
4. Identify leaders in the organization for each of the four dimensions. They are key to infuse the project with the right type of understanding and buy-in. Work with the leadership to identify how technology solutions can support each area. But keep it simple. Place everything in your roadmap.
5. Identify which dimension can invoke resistance, and brainstorm how you best handle these and turn them to your best fans. Identify any problems that can cause the project to stop. For example in a multinational organization you want to consider local launches of your new way of working, instead of globally carpet-bombing the staff with a corporate message. This will create involvement and interest.
6. Ensure you have management buy-in, as high up as you deem necessary, this executive sponsor can help you roll out the solution in a coherent manner.
7. Communicate, communicate and communicate. You need to keep everyone involved and informed. Use all tools available for getting information out there. Most projects fail due to lack of communication.

In my next article I will discuss what you should consider in each of these dimensions and how you implement best-practice transformational UCC projects.