Successfully implementing a collaboration platform is essential for realizing business value. The implementation should be split into two distinct phases: initial platform deployment and ongoing solution design. IT managers are familiar with the former, but must also be actively involved in the latter to ensure the long-term success of the collaboration environment. This research will help you:
â˘Understand the common pitfalls that organizations encounter in implementing a collaboration solution.
â˘Develop an implementation strategy that addresses all steps in the initial platform deployment, as well as ongoing solution design.
â˘Create a collaboration business analyst role to bridge the gap between IT and the business, and create solutions that meet the needs of permanent and ad-hoc teams.
â˘Foster an environment that is conducive to end-user adoption of the collaboration platform.
Collaboration implementation misfires are costly and time-consuming. Adhering to best practices around both steps of the implementation will ensure that the full potential of the platform is realized.
Computer Aided Applications Design (CAAD) installs a near-real-time method of authoring business software applications. It differs from previous systems and methods (such as Rapid Applications Development, Agile and Workflow) by morphing the role of project manager, business analyst and developer into a single role competency. This is made possible by a new âsee-no-codeâ form of apps design and deployment tooling that can de-skill the life-cycle of applications development formed around a unifying tool-kit and common skills competency.
Successfully implementing a collaboration platform is essential for realizing business value. The implementation should be split into two distinct phases: initial platform deployment and ongoing solution design. IT managers are familiar with the former, but must also be actively involved in the latter to ensure the long-term success of the collaboration environment. This research will help you:
â˘Understand the common pitfalls that organizations encounter in implementing a collaboration solution.
â˘Develop an implementation strategy that addresses all steps in the initial platform deployment, as well as ongoing solution design.
â˘Create a collaboration business analyst role to bridge the gap between IT and the business, and create solutions that meet the needs of permanent and ad-hoc teams.
â˘Foster an environment that is conducive to end-user adoption of the collaboration platform.
Collaboration implementation misfires are costly and time-consuming. Adhering to best practices around both steps of the implementation will ensure that the full potential of the platform is realized.
Computer Aided Applications Design (CAAD) installs a near-real-time method of authoring business software applications. It differs from previous systems and methods (such as Rapid Applications Development, Agile and Workflow) by morphing the role of project manager, business analyst and developer into a single role competency. This is made possible by a new âsee-no-codeâ form of apps design and deployment tooling that can de-skill the life-cycle of applications development formed around a unifying tool-kit and common skills competency.
Simple whitepaper about all the new social capabilities of IBM Sametime 9. Read it and share it. New design, many updates for Social, Mobile and HD Video
Requirements Definition For Distributed Teams (White Paper)Jon Hansen
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Requirement Definition for Distributed Teams a white paper by Blueprint Software Systems
Description:
Join Blueprint's product team as they discuss how global organizations can leverage empowered business analysts to ensure clear articulation of business requirements.
Learn how requirements visualization enables teams with different native languages and different cultural backgrounds to replace document-based BRD's with "Interactive Movie Simulations" to visualize project requirements.
Use the following link to access the on-demand Webinar: http://www.blueprintsys.com/webinar.php
"Design Thinking + IT-Mediated Services = Innovation Excellence"
August 2009
White paper from Motiv Strategies CEO Jeneanne Rae and Director Carl Fudge.
The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we do business, and it has created huge opportunities for entirely new business models, from Web portals to e-commerce. Many of these new companies have succeeded, and many have failed, but this first wave of the Internet economy has set the stage for even more innovation and success throughout all sectors of business. As exciting as the dot-com revolution was, the Internet continues to provide an even greater opportunity for more traditional businesses.
Social tools are now being offered by a number of collaboration vendors. Many organizations are unsure of how to integrate social tools with existing team workflows. Managers must embrace, rather than hinder, integration of social collaboration tools. This storyboard, along with its accompanying tools, will help you:
* Understand social collaboration and how it builds team effectiveness.
* Develop a strategy for enabling social collaboration patterns with technology.
* Understand the major vendors and feature sets for social tools.
* Foster a culture that encourages the use of social collaboration tools.
Managers must recognize that social tools are powerful enablers of knowledge-sharing and productivity in the age of the team.
Maximizing the business value from social computingSocialKwan
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Social computing is an important strategic platform for increasing workplace collaboration and knowledge management, and a strategic platform for modernizing enterprise applications to connect collaboration with business processes and transactions, thereby achieving tangible productivity gains and customer value.
There are concrete steps organizations can take today in order to address both parts of the enterprise opportunity around social computing in terms of âhorizontalâ strategic knowledge management and innovation functions and âverticalâ mission-critical business applications. Addressing both parts of this equation is key to success and to unlocking the full potential of social computing in the enterprise.
Discute as facilidades que uma ferramenta como portal corporativo pode oferecer a uma organização, apresenta os critÊrios de avaliação, infra-estrutura de tecnologia de informação, e o posicionamento, visão e impacto do portal na corporação.
www.terraforum.com.br
he constant demand for immediate access to data and resources,
reliability and efficiency has created a new ideal of modern,
powerful enterprise IT. Based on market research and technology
observation, this paper explores which criteria modern platforms
have to meet and how leading vendors and service providers
respond in order to deliver these platforms. It is intended as a
guideline for executives who need to make informed purchase
decisions.
Versatile infrastructure for customers with large computing and storage requirements that saves time and money from the start and is manageable with existing resources.
Simple whitepaper about all the new social capabilities of IBM Sametime 9. Read it and share it. New design, many updates for Social, Mobile and HD Video
Requirements Definition For Distributed Teams (White Paper)Jon Hansen
Â
Requirement Definition for Distributed Teams a white paper by Blueprint Software Systems
Description:
Join Blueprint's product team as they discuss how global organizations can leverage empowered business analysts to ensure clear articulation of business requirements.
Learn how requirements visualization enables teams with different native languages and different cultural backgrounds to replace document-based BRD's with "Interactive Movie Simulations" to visualize project requirements.
Use the following link to access the on-demand Webinar: http://www.blueprintsys.com/webinar.php
"Design Thinking + IT-Mediated Services = Innovation Excellence"
August 2009
White paper from Motiv Strategies CEO Jeneanne Rae and Director Carl Fudge.
The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we do business, and it has created huge opportunities for entirely new business models, from Web portals to e-commerce. Many of these new companies have succeeded, and many have failed, but this first wave of the Internet economy has set the stage for even more innovation and success throughout all sectors of business. As exciting as the dot-com revolution was, the Internet continues to provide an even greater opportunity for more traditional businesses.
Social tools are now being offered by a number of collaboration vendors. Many organizations are unsure of how to integrate social tools with existing team workflows. Managers must embrace, rather than hinder, integration of social collaboration tools. This storyboard, along with its accompanying tools, will help you:
* Understand social collaboration and how it builds team effectiveness.
* Develop a strategy for enabling social collaboration patterns with technology.
* Understand the major vendors and feature sets for social tools.
* Foster a culture that encourages the use of social collaboration tools.
Managers must recognize that social tools are powerful enablers of knowledge-sharing and productivity in the age of the team.
Maximizing the business value from social computingSocialKwan
Â
Social computing is an important strategic platform for increasing workplace collaboration and knowledge management, and a strategic platform for modernizing enterprise applications to connect collaboration with business processes and transactions, thereby achieving tangible productivity gains and customer value.
There are concrete steps organizations can take today in order to address both parts of the enterprise opportunity around social computing in terms of âhorizontalâ strategic knowledge management and innovation functions and âverticalâ mission-critical business applications. Addressing both parts of this equation is key to success and to unlocking the full potential of social computing in the enterprise.
Discute as facilidades que uma ferramenta como portal corporativo pode oferecer a uma organização, apresenta os critÊrios de avaliação, infra-estrutura de tecnologia de informação, e o posicionamento, visão e impacto do portal na corporação.
www.terraforum.com.br
he constant demand for immediate access to data and resources,
reliability and efficiency has created a new ideal of modern,
powerful enterprise IT. Based on market research and technology
observation, this paper explores which criteria modern platforms
have to meet and how leading vendors and service providers
respond in order to deliver these platforms. It is intended as a
guideline for executives who need to make informed purchase
decisions.
Versatile infrastructure for customers with large computing and storage requirements that saves time and money from the start and is manageable with existing resources.
Versatile infrastructure for customers with large computing and storage requirements that saves time and money from the start and is manageable with existing resources.
Early adopters of Microsoft Windows Server 2012 will find this guide to be a useful resource. It provides an explanation of new features in Windows Server 2012 and details upgrade paths, installations options and directions, hardware requirements, supported drivers and more.
Premium Overhead Scanning. Allowing you to handle all document types, from Business Cards to Magazines. Offering all advantages expected from a ScanSnap scanner.ccIncluding Rack2-Filer Smart, a complete personal document management application.
Fyrirlestur sem ĂŠg hĂŠlt ĂĄ Social Business rĂĄĂ°stefnunni Ă HĂśrpu 16. maĂ 2013:
http://www.tmsoftware.is/tm-software/vidburdir/vidburdur/item74757/Social-Business---Vinnuumhverfi-framtidarinnar
SamfÊlagsmiðlarnir hafa skapað fyrirtÌkjum mýmÜrg tÌkifÌri en à leiðinni ýmsar hÌttur og ógnir sem Þau Þurfa að vera à stakk búin að takast å við. Hannes Agnarsson Johnson hjå TM Software mun segja okkur hvernig sÊ hÌgt að virkja starfsfólkið til að vera målsvarar fyrirtÌkisins Þegar vel og illa gengur.
O centro financeiro da Alemanha. Em escala reduzida, lembra mais uma Nova York ou São Paulo. PorÊm, essa não Ê uma cidade só para executivos. A cidade dispþe tambÊm de boas opçþes de entretenimento como museus, teatros, parques, cinemas e constantes exposiçþes.
Microsoft India - Achieving Cost and Resource Savings with Unified Communicat...Microsoft Private Cloud
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Enterprises are always seeking to cut costs and optimize resource utilization. Now, in this harsh economic climate, the need is more compelling than ever. This paper highlights potential savings exceeding $5,000,000 per year for each 1,000 employees through the application of Microsoft Unified Communications to your business and IT operations. Unified Communications (UC) is a new approach to communications methods and solutions that opens up significant new ways to achieve both immediate and sustained cost and resource savings. In the past, communication-based business activities have been highly manual and prone to delays and workarounds. Now, with UC, these communications steps can be streamlined and software-assisted to reduce costs while also improving results.
Clique's CPaaS APIs and products bring HD quality voice where consumers and business want it. Clique's easy to use SDKs and APIs make it easy for businesses to provide secure and efficient communications by integrating voice, messaging, and other technologies across multiple platforms and end points. Our platform makes it possible to use voice regardless of format, application environment, operating system, device, or location.
This Wainhouse Research Ebook investigates Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) as an enabler of Digital Transformation. Weâre focusing on the broad, enterprise-wide impact that a well deployed, integrated, and expanded UC&C experience delivers, and its ability to enable a larger Digital Transformation strategy.
This eBook provides an objective, unbiased, and detailed overview of UC&C Transformation, covering the following topics:
Digital Transformation - key concepts, terms, and definitions
Enterprise Drivers - primary drivers leading the enterprise to a digital transformation strategy
Transformation Reality - common enterprise barriers to digital transformation
Key Steps & Best Practices - to making your transformation journey successful
Transformation Use Cases & Opportunities - transformation targets and benefits
This eBook includes expert analyst insight backed by the following research:
In-Dept Interviews â with product teams, IT Decision Makers (ITDMs), and executives with experience transforming their enterprises with the use of UC&C tools and solutions.
Wainhouse Research Data â we reference data points from end-user and ITDM surveys, briefings with technology vendors, and insight gained from enterprise consulting engagements.
The UC Journey - Seven Steps to a Unified User ExperienceWainhouse Research
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A well-implemented and fully-adopted UC solution can yield material benefits, including increased productivity, reduced costs, and highly engaged customers. However, these benefits prove elusive for the average enterprise. The reality: many licenses are not deployed, and those that are may not be fully utilized.
This eBook, sponsored by Alcatel Lucent Enterprise, identifies the common challenges in front of a fully-deployed UC experience, and outlines a step-wise approach to moving from complexity into deployment, and further towards integration and transformation. By identifying the key steps ahead of time, you can determine the right path that makes the most sense for you. And, more importantly, you will establish a realistic path towards success.
Insights Success is a platform that focuses distinctively on emerging as well as leading IT companies, their confrontational style of doing business and way of delivering effective and collaborative solutions to strengthen market share.Our magazine talks about leaders and orators from the world of technology, which includes CEOâs, CIOâs, VPâs, Managers and other professionals who had set a benchmark in the revolution of IT industry.
Social Business in the Cloud: Achieving Measurable ResultsRawn Shah
Â
As social technologies have evolved, they have increased in adoption across a wide spectrum of
businesses, industries, and geographies. Some organizations, usually with strong business and IT
alignment, are realizing that social technologies initiated for one business activity can spark innovative
uses in other areas. This insight creates motivation to widen the reach and adoption of these
investments. Unfortunately, this is not always the case; many organizations are still struggling with how
to justify social business investments in a way that reflects their actual business value. This inability to
quantify the business impact of social technology has become a key inhibitor to adoption.
The cloud is more than a buzzword these days. Companies large and small are looking skyward for
critical business functions that were once seen as untouchableâand theyâre doing it for the timehonored
reasons of reducing cost and complexity. The prevailing wisdom not long ago was that a critical
application like email had to be housed in a company data center where teams of expensive IT staff
members could babysit it and do little else. But thatâs all changed in the past few years.
Businesses today rely heavily on x86 servers within their datacenters to handle a wide range of workloads in diverse environments, from running cloud-computing systems and business-critical applications, to processing transactions, to managing data needed for business analytics. Those demands are raising the bar in terms of the reliability, efficiency and security that today's x86-based servers are expected to deliver.
- Discover what critical server attributes customers are seeking today.
- Learn about the current generation of x86 servers provide in security and performance.
- Gain insight into how Lenovo's coming acquisition of IBM's x86 server business will enhance value for partners and customers.
The worldâs most secure, easy to use and affordable USB flash drive. Advanced Encryption Standard 256-bit hardware encryption. Advanced government-level security certification FIPS 140-2. Brute force hack defence mechanism.
The iStorage Desktop Secure Hard Drive is the world's first portable hardware encrypted hard drive with PIN code access and capacities of up to 3TB. It utilises military grade AES 256-bit hardware encryption, which encrypts all data stored on the drive in real time
The diskAshur is the world's most secure and portable encrypted USB 3.0 Hard Drive, enabling you to access the drive with your own unique pin and now at data transfer speeds of up to 10X faster than USB 2.
In this white paper, VoIP for Beginners, youâll be introduced to how VoIP works.
Discover what occurs when a VoIP call is placed and received
Understand the key technical terms and learn the issues that affect bandwidth and call quality Learn three issues to consider when defining VoIP call quality
Today's workplace is rapidly changing. Workers are increasingly mobile. Over 52% of employees carry at least three devices for work, and may bring their own devices to and from work, a practice know as bring your own device (BYOD). These workplace dynamics have created IT challenges around data security and compliance, cost containment,and endpoint/image management.
The path forward is one that requires business transformation -transformation into an integrated enterprise. An integrated enterprise is an organizational structure that recognizes that a business operates best as a coordinated unit, and not as a mere collection of individual departments. Efficiency is achieved because focus is placed on processing transactions and information throughout the the enterprise. An ERP system is a prerequisite to the achievement of enterprise integration.
You data center is constantly becoming more complicated. The proliferation of virtualization has added an all-new layer of complexity to the picture. But there's a better way: New techniques, new technologies, and new solutions exist not only to make data protection easier, faster, and more reliable but also better to integrate the independent tasks of physical and virtual machine protection.
Many of the mysteries of equipment failure,downtime, software and data corruption are the the result of a problematic supply of power. There is also a common problem with describing power problems in a a standard way. This white paper will describe the most common types of power disturbances, what can cause them, what they can do to your critical equipment, and how to safequard your equipment, using the IEEE standards for describing power quality problems.
Thin, light and perfectly portable, the ASUS VivoBook S400 is the perfect mobile companion you can take anywhere. The instant-on technology makes VivoBook always ready when you are, and its brilliant multi-touch display responds instantly to your fingertips, giving you a rich and intuitive Windows 8 experience.
The ScanSnap S1300i is a document scanner for the PC or Mac user
capable of scanning up to 12 pages per minute / 24 images per
minute. The 10 page ADF can cope with a mixed variety of single
or double sided documents ranging in different size and thickness
as well as colour or black and white.
Fonts of innovation: Mobile development in the business is an
Economist Intelligence Unit report, sponsored by Symantec.
It explores how the IT function is working with the rest of the
organisation to deliver mobile innovation.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder â active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
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đĽ Speed, accuracy, and scaling â discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Miningâ˘:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing â with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs â GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
đ¨âđŤ Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
đŠâđŤ Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
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The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties â USA
Expansion of bot farms â how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks â Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
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Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
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Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overviewâ
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
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Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
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As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an âinfrastructure container kubernetes guyâ, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefitâs both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
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Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
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Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
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In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
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Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as âpredictable inferenceâ.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
Designing Great Products: The Power of Design and Leadership by Chief Designe...
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How Unified Communications Pays For Itself
1. WHITE PAPER
How Unified Communications
Pays For Itself
Best Practice Tips on building a Comprehensive Business Case for
Unified Communications
By Don Van Doren
3. 1. Introduction
Over the past decade, unified communications (UC) capabilities have been developed to
enable people to access other people, or to access information much more effectively.
This paper describes the foundations of these capabilities, the use cases for innovative
UC, the benefits available, and alternative approaches to implementation.
2. Communications industry transformation
There are many factors that drive UCâs innovative product developments. One
component is the underlying merging of voice, data, and video communications into
consolidated architectures. Another is the emphasis by suppliers to bring new solutions
to customers. But the critical, long-term driver spurring UC growth is the transformation
of the communications industry.
The innovations that are emerging stem from the cascading effects of the
communications industry as it changes from being largely vertically integrated within
one supplierâs products a decade ago, into a horizontally layered, standards-based,
increasingly-open environment. In this environment, system components, operating
systems, and applications programs may all come from different specialized suppliers.
Most of the communications suppliers now focus on software running on standard
hardware platforms. Emerging UC concepts and capabilities continue to extend the
importance of software to provide value to purchasers and differentiation among
suppliers as these trends extend into the future.
The data processing industry went through a similar transformation three to four
decades ago. The resulting explosion of creativity in applications programming
fundamentally altered business activities for virtually every enterprise on the planet. The
communications industry is currently undergoing the same sort of seismic shift.
We see clearly that this new era in communications is characterized by an emerging
ecosystem of application developers, partners, and systems integrators. Access to
SDKs, APIs, GUIs, and toolkits, all linked to evolving capabilities within suppliersâ
solutions, increasingly enable third-party developers, in-house experts, and the solutions
providers themselves to create applications programs with embedded communications
functionality. Thousands of specialized communications-enabled programs are being
designed for specific industriesâ needs, to address generic applications across industries,
or created to solve particular business challenges. Some of these are specifically
communications-focused. Others are simply better ways to address everyday business
issues by incorporating communications functionality within other applications.
How Unified Communications Pays For Itself! PAGE 3
4. The ability to embed communications software into business processes, applications,
and workflow programs will transform how an enterpriseâs work gets done. The result
is to eliminate communications bottlenecks, speed business activities, and improve
productivity. In many cases, there also are good opportunities to reduce capital
expenditures and operating costs.
One of the results of the growth of UC has been the widespread adoption of these
capabilities by many vendors. Different suppliers have approached this market with
different capabilities, often concentrating their offerings, not surprisingly, on the
features and functions that extend core functionality in their existing product lines.
UC has therefore spawned the creation of a large number of tools that support these
new capabilities and functionalities. These include presence and federation, buddy
lists, instant messaging, chat, new conferencing capabilities, collaborative workspaces,
mobility capabilities, communication-enabled portals, dashboards for displaying metrics,
and other similar tools.
To achieve breakthrough results, itâs important to think about communications in a new
way. The tools are important, but the tools themselves are not âunified communications.â
The key is to organize these tools to support communications requirements within a
business enterpriseâs operations â the workflows and processes that create revenues
and profits or otherwise help accomplish an organizationâs goals. UC is âcommunications
integrated to optimize business processes.â This definition captures the essence of the
way UC can help businesses meet their goals. Itâs not so much a system as it is a way
of thinking about the impact of the next generation of communications capabilities on
businesses large and small.
How Unified Communications Pays For Itself! PAGE 4
5. 3. Use cases for transformative communications
An important step for discovering ways that UC can impact business is to identify âuse
casesâ â how do people, in the ordinary course of their activities, use communications?
And what are the opportunities UC offers? In reviewing many different implementations
of UC, most fall into one of two distinct use cases.
⢠. C for user productivity (UC-U) concentrates on helping individual users better manage
U
their communications. Frequently this includes the use of instant messaging, click-to-
communicate, hovering over a name in a document to determine presence status, and
rapid set up of audio, video, or Web conferences.
⢠UC for business processes (UC-B) is focused on enhancing business activities by
integrating communications capabilities within workflows and processes.
The use cases for UC-B focus on identifying specific places in workflows or business
processes where communications bottlenecks and breakdowns impede meeting goals.
My business partner, Marty Parker, first identified these five application areas in a 2007
BCR article. They still describe many of the opportunities available:
i. Contact management. Helping callers reach the intended party, or providing
alternatives (âYour party is not available. Would you like to speak to someone on
his team?â). The opportunity is to dramatically increase access in order to provide
immediate services, answer questions, or provide information.
ii. Resource identification for issue resolution. Resource identification for issue
resolution. Finding an appropriately skilled and available individual to timely solve a
problem or provide answers. The opportunity is to speed transactions, solve problems
more rapidly, and get to the right âskillâ as quickly as possible.
iii. Collaboration acceleration. Creating workspaces and providing tools to enable ad hoc
or ongoing teams to work together effectively often on a project basis. The impact is
to speed project completion, better disseminate information to team members, and
make better decisions.
iv. Seamless information to mobile personnel. Facilitating access to people and
information sources for personnel working outside of an office environment. This
overcomes limitations often imposed on staffers working remotely or relying on
mobile devices.
v. Communications-enabled portals. Providing secure access to people and information
through the use of browsers and other portal technologies. This can provide access
to enterprise personnel from outside the corporate network, or methods to enable
secure access for customers, suppliers, and business partners.
How Unified Communications Pays For Itself! PAGE 5
6. Many enterprises tend to begin deployment by focusing on the UC-U opportunities.
These are easy to understand, quick to implement, and generally require little training
or changes in activity. Itâs really just about using new tools to do current activities in a
new way. UC-B starts by identifying business processes that can be improved by taking
advantage of UCâs capabilities to streamline workflows and reduce errors, rework, and
delays. Many enterprises find that the benefits of UC-B implementations are dramatically
greater than UC-U alone.
4. Building the business case
The business case for UC deployment involves considering both cost-saving and
revenue-enhancement opportunities. Here are three areas and opportunities for cost
savings:
â˘.reducing out-of-pocket expenses
â˘.helping individual staff members be more productive
⢠.mproving communications to optimize processes
i
5. Reducing out-of-pocket expenses
This is an important goal, especially in todayâs economic climate. And there are a
number of opportunities to do this effectively. One of the most visible it is to cut travel
expenses. Its benefit is that cost reductions can drop immediately to the bottom line. The
challenge, however, is that work still has to be accomplished and travel was frequently
necessary to allow people to work together effectively. This is where the collaboration
enhancements that UC offers can be so helpful. Collaboration means both connecting
people to each other, and sharing documents and other information.
More effective conferencing and access to shared workspace environments can make
a real difference. Setting up conferences and even adding additional users is much
simpler with internal UC-based solutions than with externally provided services. There
are significant cost savings available by reducing the use of external conferencing
services. Many companies have paid for their entire UC solution just through these
services reductions. The payback from shifting to an internally supported solution is
very rapid and the transition for the users is simple. In many cases the current challenges
of setting up a conference call in advance can be totally eliminated. Simply glance at
your presence-enabled contact list, select whoever is available and needs to be in a
conference, and begin!
How Unified Communications Pays For Itself! PAGE 6
7. Another area for out-of-pocket reductions is telephone long distance toll costs and
cellular bills. When changing over to an IP-based solution, many companies have seen
important cost reductions. Equally important, the use of UC enables users to eliminate
calls by using instant messaging to ask a quick question rather than making a phone
call. In other cases, checking presence allows users to see that the person is available
before launching a call. This approach eliminates making a phone call only to end up in
someoneâs voicemail box. The savings available can be important for mobile calls and
especially for international calling.
Finally, some companies have been able to reduce facilities costs by allowing staff to
have effective communications tools that allow them to work remotelyâfrom home or
when on the road. Over time, moving to a more flexible workforce and allowing remote
workers can trim requirements for office space, equipment, HVAC, electricity, and
lighting. All of these opportunities can have a real impact.
6. Improve staff productivity
Beyond these examples of out-of-pocket savings, there are significant opportunities to
improve individual staff productivity. Some of the benefits are ease-of-use. Itâs easy to
begin an interaction with someone on IM, then escalate that to a phone call, then shift to
a conference and bring in a third person, and finally share a document for editing.
Moreover, productivity improvements can improve business processes. Look at how
things get done in your enterprise. Frequently, individuals experience significant delays
trying to find the right person or the right information to take the next step on a project,
or to get approval to move to the next task. Presence-enabled solutions help people
to find the resources they need, access managers or experts who can help, or get data
communicated to the place it needs to go next.
Simplifying common communications tasks improves productivity. Of course, the
challenge is to convert this sort of productivity improvement into a measurable, bottom-
line impact. But in todayâs environment, where headcount pressures are intense, having
these productivity enhancements can enable a slimmer workforce to still get needed
tasks done.
The ability to click-to-communicate from within a document or email not only speeds
access as described above, but because itâs easy, people will actually take the brief time
to clarify an instruction or comment on an issue. Traditional communications methods
impose barriers âtelephone tag and email chains, and their challenges actually cause
people to decide not to bother trying. The impact is to reduce errors and rework.
How Unified Communications Pays For Itself! PAGE 7
8. 7. Improve communications to optimize processes
The previous examples focus on improved efficiencies. There are also demonstrable
revenue opportunities when UC tools are incorporated into business processes and
workflows. Many of these are based on improved collaboration among a workgroup,
department, or project team. The use of UC tools to speed collaboration or find
resources among these groups can have dramatic impacts on how work gets done.
Shorter sales cycles both speed revenues and improve sales closure rates. New products
can be brought to market in less time and with lower development costs. Faster decision-
making and rapid problem resolution remove delays from normal business operations.
All of these accelerate business processes, which can frequently mean greater and faster
revenue recognition.
UC capabilities, properly deployed, can bring improvements outside the company walls
as well. One of the biggest opportunities is to build better communication links between
a company and its partners, suppliers, and customers. Through federation of presence
information and links to other IM engines, staffers can interact more effectively with
those outside the enterprise. In other cases, communications-enabled portals can allow
people outside the company who have close business relationships with those inside to
establish secure communication links. This allows more rapid communications of delivery
status, orders, technical information, as well as direct communications between the
parties. Enabling these sorts of capabilities simply means that itâs easier to do business
with the company.
For customers, of course, this turns into greater satisfaction, greater loyalty, and
increased business opportunities. For suppliers it means more efficient operations
and faster ways to resolve any issues that arise. For partners, communications-enabled
solutions make the company âeasier to do business with.â In todayâs economy, these
sorts of benefits are compelling.
How Unified Communications Pays For Itself! PAGE 8
9. 8. UC success stories
Many suppliers have reported dramatic examples and case studies of how unified
communications capabilities have made dramatic improvements in their customersâ
operations. Here is a specific example from ShoreTel:
TopLine Federal Credit Union has been serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
metropolitan area for decades. Today it has more than 30,000 members and provides
premium personal service âthat people can bank on.â With numerous full-service
branch locations throughout the Twin Cities, TopLine offers quality financial products,
competitive rates, low fees, online banking and shared branching services.
By leveraging ShoreTelâs integrated unified communications capabilities, TopLine has
been able to reduce the amount of time for addressing customer issues. For example,
instant messaging is used across multiple sites. By knowing the presence status of
subject matter experts in any location at any time, service representatives are able to
get the latest information in less time and with less effort. For more complex issues,
they are able to escalate an instant message into a phone call with the touch of a
button, resulting in rapid resolution of customer issues and enabling superior customer
satisfaction.
These innovations have allowed the credit union employees to focus on retaining
customers, spending more time with their valued clients, improving service, and
creating the most positive experience possible for all of their customers. TopLine
management reports savings of support and maintenance costs of over 40 percent, a
significant decrease in call wait times, an increase in call completions, as well as out-of-
pocket savings by eliminating POTS lines.
How Unified Communications Pays For Itself! PAGE 9
10. 9. Implementation planning
UC supports different types of use cases, and a variety of different avenues to cost
justification. Similarly, there are also a variety of ways that UC solutions can be deployed.
⢠.n some cases, companies purchase UC functionality and roll it out broadly to all staff.
I
Typically this approach focuses on UC-U opportunities.
⢠.n others, the company will look for specific opportunities for UC functionality to
I
improve selected business processes or workflows (UC-B). This method can require
additional upfront planning but typically provides substantially greater benefits.
⢠Finally, there are techniques to deploy UC-U first and then incorporate UC-B
opportunities in the future.
The goal of a UC-U deployment is to enable all staff to gain personal productivity
benefits. Quite frequently we find that this approach accompanies the replacement of
a legacy PBX environment with a new IP PBX solution. In many cases, the fundamental
driver was to replace the PBX, and UC enhancements are viewed as an added benefit.
UC-U deployments are often led by the IT or telecom departments with relatively little
involvement from business managers.
In a UC-B deployment, the approach is different. Here, the goal is to identify specific
business processes in which communications bottlenecks or barriers exist. This means
that the IT staff often have to work with someone from business management or
operations who can help identify appropriate opportunities. IT understands the system
capabilities; the business manager understands where the best opportunities exist.
One effective technique is to review company workflows and processes and look for
areas where inadequate communications cause errors, delays, or rework. This is, of
course, similar to the use of lean six sigma techniques:
⢠Start with an overview of the companyâs processes
⢠. ero in on those that have high value or high volume and where communication
Z
challenges impede the process
⢠Determine which of these âhot spotsâ can be mitigated by applying UC capabilities
⢠Translate these opportunities into use cases for how processes will work and the
benefits available
⢠Organize and prioritize opportunities to create a roadmap of UC projects
⢠Design an action plan for implementation
How Unified Communications Pays For Itself! PAGE 10
11. In one example, an insurance company claims department identified 63 places where
communications bottlenecks slowed the processing and payment of claims. Simple
implementation of three UC capabilities helped solve two-thirds of those bottlenecks.
10. Conclusion
If a company has deployed UC-U capabilities, there certainly is an opportunity to go
back and gain additional benefits from UC-B. Start by considering the UC-U deployment
as âfamiliarization.â Giving employees time to become accustomed to these new
communications functions can help in identifying ways to embed new functionality within
the workflows. Whatâs important is to not stop at the individual productivity benefits of
UC-U. Rather, take the time to scan the overall business processes and talk to key line
of business managers about areas where communications barriers might exist. Itâs quite
likely that a senior manager will identify substantial opportunities within a particular
department and become the champion for a more targeted UC-B implementation.
Once some particular opportunities are identified, dive more deeply into the specific
business processes and workflows. Look for areas where communications challenges
impede these processes. Typically, there will be many such opportunities identified.
Prioritize the opportunities based on the impact that correcting the problem will have
and on the ease of deploying the capabilities needed to improve the situation. Pick a
few, high visibility opportunities and work on deploying them effectively. Measure the
results in the improvements and use this success to find and encourage other business
transformations.
The process can be assisted by creating teams including or led by line of business
representatives to go into their own areas and look for additional opportunities. In
addition, find ways to capture innovative ideas and publicize them throughout the
organization.
These techniques have produced compelling business improvements through the
effective use of unified communications. There are hundreds of examples of excellent
implementations. As this revolution in communications capabilities becomes ever more
widespread, we will see that unified communications will permeate virtually all areas of
business, just as data processing and computer technologies did three decades ago.
Why wait? Letâs get started!
How Unified Communications Pays For Itself! PAGE 11
12. About the Author:
Don Van Doren is principal and co-founder of UniComm Consulting, an independent
consulting firm that focuses exclusively on unified communications. The firm helps
enterprise clients understand the potential for UC in their business, develop strategies
appropriate to their goals and opportunities, find specific applications and associated
ROI, identify supplier partners, and assist with implementation including project
management, change leadership, and metrics. Don is also a co-founder of UCStrategies.
com, a portal website which provides information about the UC industry. In addition, he
is president of Vanguard Communications, an independent consulting firm which helps
clients plan, design, and implement innovative contact center technology and processes.
Contact Don at dvandoren@unicommconsulting.com.
About ShoreTel
ShoreTel is the provider of brilliantly simple Unified Communication (UC) solutions based on its
award-winning IP business phone system. We offer organizations of all sizes integrated, voice,
video, data, and mobile communications on an open, distributed IP architecture that helps
significantly reduce the complexity and costs typically associated with other solutions. The
feature-rich ShoreTel UC system offers the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) and the highest
customer satisfaction in the industry, in part because it is easy to deploy, manage, scale and
use. Increasingly, companies around the world are finding a competitive edge by replacing
business-as-usual with new thinking, and choosing ShoreTel to handle their integrated business
communication. ShoreTel is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has regional offices and partners
worldwide. For more information, visit shoretel.com.
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