The document discusses the challenges of integrating unified communications, mobility, collaboration tools and applications. It notes there are many vendors and technologies available but the solution needs to be tailored specifically for each organization. It emphasizes that the focus should be on how these tools improve business processes and productivity rather than any single platform. A key challenge is supporting mobile needs which differ from enterprise tools. The optimal solution allows users access to information and real-time communication both inside and outside the office. It concludes that with proper integration, companies can save money, better serve customers, retain employees and differentiate themselves from competitors.

1. Mobility, Unified
Communications,
Collaboration
and Applications
Today's communications environment is like a complicated puzzle. There’s an incredible
amount of technology and services in the market all vying to ‘help you’ do business
better. You have major vendors like Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, and Mitel selling Unified
Communications (UC) platforms. Then, you have the explosion of smartphones and
tablets and the thousands of applications that are being used on these devices, mostly
independent of enterprise rules. Add to this the social media revolution for
communicating and also the web-based collaboration tools that are being offered.
There's IM and multi-media conferencing to help you communicate better. And cloud-
based services are vying for your documents and even your intelligence gathering. You
need to secure all of this. When you look at all the pieces, the solution probably won't be
a single platform but an integrated solution specific for your organization.
We suggest that with UC, you should be focusing on
“what can UC do” rather than “Who can I buy it from.”
It's more appropriate to understand how UC fits into
your broader IT environment that includes applications,
infrastructure, security, and access methods without
narrowing the focus on a particular approach to the
problem. We like to define it as not being one platform
but rather an integration of capabilities in an
uncomplicated way for the end user. It's an integration
task, not a communications problem.
The very real challenge facing IT teams today is how to properly support the mobility
aspect of this integration requirement. The needs and tools for doing business when
mobile are very different than the tools offered within an enterprise environment. And
decisions made will be different for small to medium size organizations than they are for
larger businesses.

2. The optimum solution for your organization should allow
users, whether they’re in the office or on the road, to access
the information they need more easily and communicate with
the people they need to talk to in real time.
We also suggest that when you start adding some of these
new capabilities, it is not just cost, although this is an
important issue, it is also how people will be functioning and
working together within the context of these new business
processes. With UC, mobility and apps, business productivity
is going to combine with individual end user productivity, to
move business operations more efficiently and more
effectively in the future. It's a win-win for the company and
employees.
When done properly, your company will be in a position to save money, be responsive
to your customers, retain employees by giving them the right tools to do their business
and differentiate yourself from competitors. This includes appropriate rules and security
for communications that also need to be implemented to safeguard your company
information.
At cpandr Consulting, we have experience in
assessing and recommending solutions in the UC,
mobility, devices and applications puzzle. We can also
help with the qualitative analysis of what systems,
devises, networks and applications are best suited for
your business. And we can manage your deployment
by assisting in the rollout with dedicated project
management while you do your business. We'd love
to help wherever we can.
Reprinted with permission, cpandr Consulting
www.cpandr.blogspot.com
416 768 3874