Three Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Deploying Enterprise-Wide Communications Solutions April 23, 2013 @ 09:25 AM | By James Whitemore

An enterprise-wide deployment of any IT solution is not an easy task.  When it comes to business communication solutions, namely unified communications (UC), the difficulty is arguably even more exacerbated. Costly mistakes are avoidable if an organization is thoroughly prepared before embarking on the selection and deployment of such important technology to a business.

UC is particularly challenging within the enterprise infrastructure because of the varied application needs of users, the mobile nature of a business, or the geographic strains on the overall solution.  So, it is no wonder that costly mistakes can be made and some stand out more than others when it comes to UC deployments.

First, it is extremely important that IT evaluate how all UC services (voice, video, instant messaging, collaboration, and mobile) are used in the organization. This requires due diligence and a thorough understanding of the business and its operations. Do you have to support a mobile workforce? What are the geographical demands for the solution – regionally, countrywide, and globally? These and other issues need to be thoroughly vetted before going too far down the deployment path.

One issue seen too often is organizations trying to tackle everything at once, i.e. addressing all the communications demands as an all-encompassing project. Such an approach is not recommended. Trying to deploy every communication tool at the same time will most likely create a project that will be impossible to manage, impossible to deploy, and one fraught with missed deadlines.  It will ultimately be viewed as a failure. The desired goal is to arrive at an optimal end state for users and to support the overall business in a managed, well organized fashion.

Another common mistake is that during TCO/ROI modeling, IT often creates unrealistic scenarios that don’t take into account both “hard” and “soft” costs. Hard costs are easy to quantify as they are hardware, software, vendor implementation and support, PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) and network charges. Soft costs, on the other hand, are difficult to capture, but they are every bit as real and should be part of every TCO model. Included in those costs are not only things such as productivity, customer satisfaction, and resource management, but also opportunity costs associated with what the business is missing without having the new deployment to improve the operations.

One of the biggest mistakes concerns hosted solutions. During the evaluation process, don’t dismiss UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) as unproven, unreliable or not secure, regardless of your industry. In fact, hosted solutions should be looked at as a primary option since they require less capital expense, are quicker to implement, provide a better scale, and are easier to evaluate financially. Also, it is a misconception that on-premises and hosted solutions cannot be integrated. They actually can and are effective in meeting business needs.  Hosted solution implementations are trending up and offer a lot of flexibility regardless of the industry. Wainhouse Research predicts that UCaaS revenue will grow 47 percent from 2011 to 2015. Frost & Sullivan is even more aggressive predicting the UCaaS market will total nearly $2 billion in 2013. Deploying in whole or in part some hosted solutions in an organization is inevitable considering today’s computing environments and the distinct business advantages they offer.

For organizations pursuing hosted solutions, it is important to understand how they are delivered and supported. The ever increasing mistake IT organizations are making is they will evaluate on features and price, but fail to understand how UC will be delivered and impact their networks. Also important is evaluating the actual hosted service provider and making sure you can trust what is said and delivered.  Will voice and data be delivered on the same pipe?  How will the networks work together – yours and the provider’s? And, what support is there for redundancy? These and other questions are important to address, and a clear understanding of delivery and support is essential.

And, finally, when choosing a supplier, it is important that the supplier, from the very beginning of the engagement, is a trusted partner and one that is committed to helping you solve your business challenges with communications solutions.  A good supplier will be one who even well before the contract is awarded works with you to understand end-user needs, organizational needs, and what the end state should look like. People buy from people, and people buy ideas. Quite often, you are buying a mindset and a working relationship more than a product or solution. A good supplier will offer added value throughout the process and stick with you from beginning to end. So what are the key learnings?

Above all, be fully prepared and conduct due diligence prior to embarking on what could be a massive project:

• Understand how the technology will impact the business, and build to meet that.

• Be realistic with scenarios and evaluate all costs, not just the hard ones.

• Consider hosted solutions as they offer advantages and can integrate with on-premises solutions to meet desired objectives.

• Make sure you understand fully the delivery and support associated with the chosen solution.

• Finally, a strong partner relationship is critical to be effective.

When it comes to addressing your communications needs, the best approach is to crawl, then walk, before you run.  The approach will pay off in the long term for your organization.

West IP Communications and InterCall are both owned by West Corporation, and the West IP team provides UC solutions for many InterCall customers.

James Whitemore is senior vice president of sales and marketing at West IP Communications, the team that delivers InterCall’s unified communication services. InterCall and West IP Communications are both a part of West Corporation. James holds a B.A. (Hons) degree in Business from Newcastle University in the U.K. and currently resides in Boulder, CO. In his downtime, James is an avid skier with an enthusiasm for traveling and car collecting.

WebConnectUS: webconferencing without the commitment March 12, 2013 @ 10:05 AM | By Eric Vidal

Ever since the first faint black-and-white signals flickered over the airways, one of the favorite plot lines of relationship-based TV comedies has been the fear of commitment. Hilarity usually ensues when one partner does all sorts of crazy things to avoid entering into any long-term obligation with the other.

But TV and the movies aren’t the only place fear of commitment appears. It’s also a reality in the workplace, especially when organizations are looking at spending a lot of money for license fees on technology they may only need to use occasionally. Such as web conferencing.

Luckily, InterCall Event Services has come up with a solution for you commitmentphobes with a new, exclusive service called WebConnectUS. It combines InterCall ‘s Event Plus Premium Audio service with AdobeConnect as a bundled package on a one-off basis without having to commit to a long-term contract. WebConnectUS takes the guesswork out of the budgeting process by providing a hefty discount for combining web conferences, and then letting you purchase your web event off a predictable rate card.

A 60-minute package can be purchased for as little as $995 for 20 participants. The package options then scale up to accommodate as many as 1500 participants. It’s up to you how intimate or grand you want to go.    

By now you’re probably thinking “sure, this is great if I want to make a no-frills presentation and do all the behind-the-scenes work myself.”  But the truth is it’s a pretty sweet package that will make your organization look good by letting you focus on the content while InterCall takes care of the rest. Among the amenities you receive with WebConnectUS are:

• A dedicated event specialist who will help you pull all the technical and event day elements together so you can focus on creating your message and content
• Toll-free audio dial-in for the U.S., Western Europe and selected Asian countries
• An AdobeConnect registration portal that lets you post your upcoming event online and gather data while allowing participants to register quickly and easily
• A branded message so participants are greeted by a customized announcement which is played while they are waiting to enter your conference.
• The ability to take online or audio questions and engage your audience further with a live question and answer session managed by a dedicated operator
• Professionally attended recording of you webcast (audio and slides together) for those who can’t attend live but want the information later
• Optional

In other words, it’s pretty much everything you might want from a webcasting solution without the thing you want least – being forced to commit to purchasing a license. There are even two pricing options to fit your budget. The Premium version adds the ability to  do a dry run rehearsal, receive a transcription of the spoken word so you can re-leverage your content in a variety of other ways whether for review or article writing etc. Not to mention additional  guidance on best practices and tips from InterCall’s event services experts among other delights.

If you have a fear of commitment, or just like the flexibility of being able to host  professionally moderated web event as-needed, be sure to check out InterCall WebConnectUS. 

For more information about WebConnectUs, please contact Tony Millar, Sr. Product Manager @ ammillar@intercall.com

Eric Vidal is a Director of Product Marketing at InterCall and is considered a leading voice and expert in virtual business, which expands from marketing to collaboration to learning. He has more than 15 years experience in developing, implementing and optimizing strategies in these areas for numerous organizations and Global 2000 companies. As the director of product marketing for InterCall’s event services, Eric manages the strategy and initiatives for the virtual technologies that include virtual environments, streaming, event management services and operator assisted services. Previously from WebEx, Eric managed the virtual classroom product, as well as brand advertising and new media. Over the last several years, Eric has held management positions at Cisco, WebEx, IBM, BBDO Worldwide and Macromedia.

When it comes to workforce productivity, proximity is overrated; Marissa Mayer’s Edict March 6, 2013 @ 10:11 AM | By Kathleen Finato

Looks like Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer may have missed the point with her edict earlier this week that company employees are no longer allowed to work from home. Traditional media, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media have all been abuzz over the declaration that by June all Yahoo! employees must report to the office every day if they want to keep their jobs.

Mayer is trying to turn around a company that once was an Internet leader, but has been performing poorly over the past few years. It’s her belief that the way to get the swagger back and get the workforce back on the same page is by having them all in the same building, or on the same campus, so they can interact face-to-face and build a sense of camaraderie.   I get that.

But as with certain other debates raging in the U.S. right now, Mayer seems to be blaming the technology that enables telecommuting rather than looking at how it’s being used.  That’s the wrong focus.   

There are a great many reasons work at home, when done properly, makes sense. It opens an organization to a much wider talent pool than it can obtain by requiring workers to be present at a particular location. Telecommuting improves productivity, because time that might be spent battling traffic or waiting on public transportation can instead be spent working.  It also leads to a happier and more loyal workforce, as evidenced by a 2011 WorldAtWork study that found companies that embraced flexibility had lower turnover and higher employee satisfaction, motivation and engagement.  Many highly successful companies like Accenture use hoteling to save millions in fixed real estate costs while accommodating their employees' busy travel and worklife balance.

The truth is there are all kinds of ways to build that sense of togetherness and teamwork without requiring constant attendance at an office. West’s InterCall Event Services group has virtual environment technology that actually improves productivity through an online workspace that provide the opportunity for “hallway” conversations or even after-hours meet-ups without everyone having to be in the same place at the same time.

And there’s the key. Often organizations look at communications as a technology cost, instead of a catalyst to collaboration, which in turn inspires innovation and growth.

While some hallway, or water cooler, or cafeteria conversations might spark spontaneous ideas, the truth is that most focus on the banalities of life or work. When was the last time you had a truly great idea while while pouring a cup of coffee?

What needs to change at nearly every company is the idea that sitting in a home office is isolating and unproductive.  By building a culture of collaboration, organizations, can benefit from the collective intelligence of the group, which allows them to do great things and build an enduring company.

The world has changed, and it’s not going back. Rather than being seen as a barrier to a sense of common purpose, unified communications should be embraced as the enabler. With the right approach, it will enhance the interaction between co-workers which ultimately leads to success.

As Senior Vice President, Marketing and Product, Kathleen is responsible for overall brand stewardship for the business. With more than 20 years’ experience, Kathleen brings a wealth of knowledge and a long line of accomplishments. Prior to joining InterCall, Kathleen held leadership positions with Motorola, including head of North America marketing and vice president of sales in the mobile devices business. She also worked with CoreComm, GE Financial and SBC/Ameritech. She received her bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College and a master’s degree in business administration from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. In her spare moments, Kathleen enjoys spending time with her two boys and traveling.

West IP Communications and Cisco: Curing Communications Madness February 26, 2013 @ 01:41 PM | By James Whitemore

Across the nation, businesses are facing an epidemic: Communication madness! The symptoms include increased pressure to deploy unified communications, mobility and deal with B.Y.O.D. – all without the appropriate resources.

The cure can be found in hosted cloud communications through the use of platforms like Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS). But not all HCS providers are the same. HCS requires a secure, reliable platform–without it things fall apart. But with most providers just getting into the “cloud,” it can lead to client issues like lack of support, installation delays and business interruption.

So who can help you administer the cure for this madness? West IP Communications and Cisco. With more than 12 years of experience delivering hosted communications, we are positioned to deliver Cisco HCS like no other provider can.

Check out this short video about VoiceMaxx CE, our HCS-based platform, and let us know what you think of it below! And to read more about it, click here.

West IP Communications and InterCall are both owned by West Corporation, and the West IP team provides UC solutions for many InterCall customers.

James Whitemore is senior vice president of sales and marketing at West IP Communications, the team that delivers InterCall’s unified communication services. InterCall and West IP Communications are both a part of West Corporation. James holds a B.A. (Hons) degree in Business from Newcastle University in the U.K. and currently resides in Boulder, CO. In his downtime, James is an avid skier with an enthusiasm for traveling and car collecting.

Today’s Top Drivers for Hosted UC Deployment February 25, 2013 @ 09:05 AM | By James Whitemore

For many years, West IP Communications was a voice in the wilderness, building awareness for the notion of hosted enterprise communications solutions.  Even at our founding in 2000, we understood the long-term implications and significant business benefits that accrue with hosted solutions.

The environment has continued to evolve, to the point where hosted solutions are mainstream in their acceptance while communication options have evolved beyond voice and email. There are now many different tools at an organization’s disposal. But to get the most out of those tools, does the hosted model still make as much sense?

Industry analyst Zeus Kerravala has just published a new whitepaper on exactly that question: The Top 10 Reasons to Consider Hosted Collaboration Solutions.  Kerravala provides real-world examples of significant business benefits that arise from hosted solutions – not simply retreads of existing arguments. Beyond that, he offers concrete steps to follow for any business embarking on, or well into, the deployment of collaboration solutions. They include:

• Consider a hosted solution at least to augment your current deployment.

• Evaluate hosted collaboration solutions from several providers

• Start the deployment small, using a controlled pilot

Read the paper for yourself. You can find it in its entirety by clicking here. I think you’ll find it to be a quick and very insightful read!

West IP Communications and InterCall are both owned by West Corporation, and the West IP team provides UC solutions for many InterCall customers.

James Whitemore is senior vice president of sales and marketing at West IP Communications, the team that delivers InterCall’s unified communication services. InterCall and West IP Communications are both a part of West Corporation. James holds a B.A. (Hons) degree in Business from Newcastle University in the U.K. and currently resides in Boulder, CO. In his downtime, James is an avid skier with an enthusiasm for traveling and car collecting.