1. Introduction How Unified Communications and VoIP can transform a small to medium size business Derek W. Roush President / CEO VocalPoint Consulting Group, LLC
6. Video On Demand “ Video is going to be on of those catalyst products that will change the face of Unified Communications by knocking down the walls of Interoperability between vendors.”
Thank you Michael, I am very pleased to be with you today to speak about how Unified Communications and Voice over IP can transform a small to medium sized business. This is a subject that I'm very passionate about since I try to stay up to date with all of the latest technology and the emerging trends so that I can effectively advise my clients. My company, VocalPoint Consulting Group is an independent telecommunications consulting firm. Our approach to telecom is that we analyze our clients needs and then bring the appropriate vendors to the table based on a clients unique business needs and drivers. We don't expect our clients to know everything about telecom; that's our job. We want our clients to focus on their core business while we take care of the voice and data needs. Our goal is to find ways to optimize the flow of communications and information through the use of next generation communication products and services. And, this includes Voice over IP phone systems. What I'm gonna talk to you about today is some of the trends that we see in UC and Voice over IP and why the time is right for SMB's to capitalize on them.
Now, let's talk a little about “what Unified Communications is” because there seems to be some confusion in the market place about what it exactly is or does. Unified Communications (or UC as we call it) can be defined in many ways. In fact, the varying meanings that you get are typically related to a vendors capabilities and not a standardized definition. So, it may depend on who you're talking to. So, the Avaya definition may be different from the Cisco or Microsoft definition and a hosted telephony provider may define UC differently than a premise based IP telephony vendor. I look at UC as the collaboration of People, Processes, information and Applications in a cohesive business environment over multiple devices enabling efficient communications. What that means to your business will depend on a couple of factors. 1. How do you communicate today? 2. In what areas can you improve communications? 3. What applications is your business running that can collaborate with the way you want to communicate. That may include a CRM application or video conferencing, Microsoft Exchange, or even adding devices such as tablet PC's, etc. The bottom line is that you need to identify the role communications will play in your business. And, when it comes to UC, that starts with your communications platform and your VoIP strategy. So, as you can see here UC is about bridging all of these types of applications together so that we can ultimately process information faster.
In 2010 ZDNet did a study that talked about how companies were making the leap to IP telephony without a problem, yet the next jump to Unified Communications was taking a much slower route. Only 13.5 percent of IT managers listed Unified Communications as a top interest in the 2010 study and 14.7 percent gave it as a priority over the next six months. That's about half those looking at IP telephony. If UC wasn't a consideration for your business in 2010, it should certainly be on your radar in 2011. It's a concept that takes a little abstract thinking. And, because it's one of those concepts that takes some thought, I believe that it's benefits are misunderstood. My hope is that you come away from this webinar today with a better understanding of Unified Communications, the role it WILL play in your business and how you can capitalize on this growing trend.
So, let's take a look at the trending in and around communications that's relevant to an SMB. When we look at what's going on in the marketplace, we see a few things that are driving communications in the SMB space. Some of these, we believe is driven out of need. However, a great deal of the vendor offerings today are driven by the vendors' themselves rather than a true market need. First, we see that Tablet PC's and Smartphones will continue to drive a great deal of the innovation in communications. In a moment we'll take a look at the role they'll play going forward. Next, we'll take a look at the role video is playing as a top emerging trend. We'll also look at Cloud offerings and what this means to SMB's and how this integrates with communications and some of the vendor offerings. As vendor's UC options grow we're seeing pricing per person drop. We'll explore this trend in more detail and talk about how vendor's are packaging the licensing. Lastly, we'll talk about CEBP or Communication Enabled Business Processes and what this means to your business and why it should be important to you.
Tablet PC's and Smartphones are still gonna garner a lot of attention this year, and rightfully so. As IT managers scramble to adapt to multiple 3 rd party devices on their network, the younger tech savvy worker is demanding integration with these devices. What we're seeing now is the Gen Y worker coming into the workplace expecting to be able to not only integrate their 3 rd party device, but also their 3 rd party apps like facebook, twitter and skype. Who can blame them, it's what they have grown accustomed to. The problem is that companies today are going to have to adopt policies to deal with these devices and applications or they won't be able to attract the top talent in the workplace today. UC vendors are gonna continue to drive applications for these devices including audio, video and web conferencing. Many UC providers are developing their own applications that can reside on a smartphone or tablet allowing for full control of one's desk phone. And, as our walk and work society continues to grow, this is an area of the market that is poised to experience explosive growth. Now that growth may not come from the UC vendors. It may come from the app developers building open source applications. Nevertheless, it's an area of communications that can't be ignored since there are many ways to recognize productivity enhancements to your business through mobility.
I think the Jetson's really were ahead of their time. Because finally Video is becoming the major game changer when it comes to VoIP and Unified Communications. The obvious benefit is the ability to see who you're talking to and gauge a person's facial expressions and body language. But, now it's evolving into much more than that. Think about If you could check a person's presence status, locate them wherever they are and whatever device they're on create a video conference at the click of a button and collaborate on a project, you could save an enormous amount of time. When you consider the ability to share and make changes to documents within that video conference, then it becomes really powerful. That's what video conferencing is doing for businesses. And, now we're starting to see video conferencing become very affordable for even the smallest of businesses. As more work is able to be done through collaboration, it's easy to see how you can start to realize thousands of dollars in savings by eliminating a great deal of your travel expenses. And with more and more adoption of open standards, In my opinion, Video is gonna to be on of those catalyst products that will change the face of Unified Communications by knocking down the walls of Interoperability between vendors.
After gathering momentum over the last 5 years, the “cloud” and “software-as-a-service” are now more than mere buzzwords, witnessing massive adoption from all sectors of the economy, particularly the small and medium business segment. In a recent report, IDC, a premiere global provider of market intelligence, predicted that over 2009-2014, SaaS will grow six times faster than traditional packaged software, reaching over $40 billion in revenues by 2014. What's driving decisions by SMB's? Well, speed to market, Cost Savings and Enterprise class features at SMB prices, just to name a few. Many small businesses are focusing on the cloud as a way to adopt enterprise class features like Microsoft SharePoint where documents can be stored in the cloud and accessible from anywhere and by anyone with the proper security credentials. Couple that with video or web conferencing like we talked about on the last slide, and collaboration begins to take place at a much higher level than SMB's used to be able to perform. Companies are gonna miss huge opportunities if they look at VoIP and UC without looking at the cloud.
Unified Communications is no longer just a license to enable mobility. It has grown to encompass a wide array of applications and devices. So, it's no surprise that we're seeing vendors packaging UC products in bundles. And, many of these bundles are packaged by roles within an organization. Meaning, there may be a bundle for someone just needing mobility such as a sales person; while another bundle may be suited for someone who works from home. This is significantly cutting down on the amount of licensing needed for unified communications in a company and thus reducing the overall cost. What you see here is a breakdown of how those roles are becoming defined in business today. I think you'll begin to see this more and more because it fits with the business and cost model that's attractive to SMB's. Coupling UC bundles with Desktop Virtualization and cloud services can be a very cost effective approach for an SMB.
Wikipedia defines CEBP this way: They state: The goal of a Communication Enabled Business Process (CEBP) is to optimize business process by reducing the human latency that exists within a process flow. For example, a mortgage approval process may be experiencing human latency because the person assigned to providing an approval is on vacation or busy working on something else. To reduce this latency, CEBP leverages Unified communications capabilities (i.e. UC services) by embedding them into the business process flow. The result is a more efficient, more automated closed-loop process; translating into significant ROI. In other words, CEBP can keep you or your company from dropping the ball. The bottom line is that, embedding Unified Communications into business processes will result in less human error. Particular features of UC that can be used to eliminate human error could be things like “automated appointment reminders” for doctors or Integrated Voice Response systems that can trigger alerts to a technician on the road. What it boils down to is taking away the old way of doing things with the typical email or task reminders and replacing them with sophisticated algorithms that take into consideration the users role in the organization, their skill set, their presence status, the best way to reach them, etc to create an instantaneous collaboration session required to complete a step in the business process. It's a sophisticated way to do more with less. From the standpoint of the telecom vendors, it's about leveraging your investment in a new VoIP phone system to optimize your business and create a compelling ROI. CEBP is something that all business, including SMB's, are gonna have to consider in order to stay ahead in a competitive market.
Lastly, every business wants to know where the savings are gonna come from. Where am I gonna see an ROI? It's a valid question and one that every business should ask. So, don't be afraid to ask for a ROI analysis on the proposed solution. Have your vendor tell you where it will save you money. Because, if they can't tell you that, then they don't really know your business or the solution that they're proposing to you. Find out what the true costs are including, service, maintenance, licensing, etc. Also, make sure you understand what it would cost to incrementally add users as you grow. Last but not least, understand all of the financing and rebate offers out there so that you can make a wise decision as to whether it's best to finance versus own. Some vendors may also provide managed services offerings that include maintenance and moves, adds and changes making for a worry free purchase. The bottom line is that UC and VoIP coupled with the right technology partner can propel a small to medium sized business and position it for exponential growth.
I hope you all enjoyed this presentation on how UC and VoIP can transform a small to medium sized business. Now I'll turn it back over to Michael.
