Adam Jacobs is the IT Service Delivery Manager at First Rate Exchange Services, a major UK foreign currency provider. The company transitioned to unified communications with Microsoft technologies, achieving significant time savings per employee and reduced reliance on third-party solutions. Employee feedback indicates positive reception of the new systems, highlighting improved collaboration and communication efficiency.

1. Adam Jacobs FRES Classification: Internal - Amber

2. About me Adam Jacobs, IT Service Delivery Manager for First Rate Exchange Services Blog: http://imapcblog.com

3. About First Rate First Rate is one of the largest providers of foreign currency to businesses across the UK First Rate was established as a 50/50 joint venture company between Post Office and Bank of Ireland in 2002 First Rate’s innovation led to the Post Office pioneering 0% commission in 2001 which revolutionised the UK FX market Through efficiency and innovation First Rate has enabled the PO to become the largest supplier of foreign currency in the UK First Rate employs around 320 people

4. Why Office Communications Server? Encourage communications outside of e-mail Microsoft savvy IT Team (already using Exchange 2007 and SharePoint 2007) Neglected PBX (no longer fit for purpose) Familiar Office-style interface

5. Roll-out Focussed first on base requirements (PBX, Exchange & WAN) First Rate’s deployment encompassed all user profiles (remote workers, contact centre, office based, multi-site workers and the dreaded execs) Small pilot within IT and Projects Teams Designed and tested a phased deployment

6. Unified Communications & SharePoint Metrics First Rate estimates a saving of 32mins per employee (238 deployed), per day via Office Communicator, based on: Click to call, no more looking up contact numbers and dialling manually Presence, why go upstairs or try mobiles when you can see people are out/in a meeting/on the phone?

7. Unified Communications & SharePoint Metrics First Rate estimates a saving of 38mins per employee (33 deployed), per day via SoftPhones Deployed USB Catalina phones to hot desk areas and Directors with multi-site offices (the ability to for people to reach you on your office DDI) Deployed USB Headsets for home working (existing office VPN utilised and no QoS needed!)

8. Unified Communications & SharePoint Metrics First Rate estimates a saving of 43mins per employee (238 deployed), per day via Microsoft Exchange 2007, based on: Users can now receive voicemail indication and listen when away from the office, via Outlook or BlackBerry therefore reducing travel

9. Unified Communications & SharePoint Metrics First Rate estimates a saving of £32k per annum when Office Communication Server R2 is deployed, based on: A quarterly spend on 3 rd party solutions of £8k per quarter

10. Employee Survey We asked 10 people a series of questions during Unified Communications training Criteria: All attendees were asked 5 questions and ranked on a scale of 1 – 5 1 – Very Poor 2 – Poor 3 – Average 4 – Good 5 – Very Good

11. Q1. How would you rate the delivery of this new technology, taking into account business disruption and technical issues?

12. Q2. How would you rate this new functionality or envisage its use to the business?

13. Q3. How would you rate today's presentation?

14. Q4. How would you rate Outlook 2007 (ribbon bar, Exchange 2007 & Voicemail integration)?

15. Q5. How would you feel if IT decided to deliver the remaining Office 2007 components (Word, Excel & PowerPoint)?

16. First Rate Unified Communications & SharePoint Interesting Facts Employees have changed the way they work as a result of UC Employees aged >30 (69 staff) have found huge comfort in collaborating via IM Employees aged <30 (169 staff) have really taken to “click-to-call” Managers are very happy to have employee presence (no surprises here!) Employees have started embedding voicemail within documents for Risk & Compliance purposes People can forward voicemail (a definite time saver, no more post-its!)

17. First Rate Unified Communications & SharePoint Interesting Facts Missed calls in your inbox, know who is trying to get hold of you Voicemail out of office (set out of office once) BlackBerry workforce uses Communicator for BlackBerry more presence and IM functionality Utilised old Nortel PBX bought in 2001, just upgraded the firmware/cards for £12k We have 5 RoundTables, we decided to purchase these as conference phones in view to adopting video conference next (price difference between previous conference phones was only £600)

18. First Rate Unified Communications & SharePoint Interesting Facts Via the integration of our HR system with Active Directory we ensured that all contact information is maintained within Communicator (E.164) Our SharePoint 2007 intranet interrogates all of this information and allows us to quickly feedback on news or documentation via the Communicator API IT Service Desk has become location independent using headsets and USB phones, presence and IM, with this multi-site IT support would be impossible without more FTEs

19. Lessons Learned (if there is time) E.164 – it might be a good time to check your active directory contact information Outlook 2007 – you need this for play on phone (very useful if your corporate machines are locked down without sound support Speak to your PBX vendor and initiate a project to upgrade/patch your neglected switch first Directly attached OCS installations can provide greater presence capabilities (phone off-hook) – speak to your PBX vendor to see if you can achieve this