Plan for UC greatness

At the heart of any successful research implementation is a good project plan, however when it comes to UC the risk and rewards can seem very distant. How can CIOs be confident their UC efforts will rise to greatness and not waver like an infamous enterprise software project?

CIO about the company's IT modernisation program

I once interviewed a CIO about the company's IT modernisation program and when the topic of telephony came up he said, "I'm interested in UC, nevertheless it's too risky". That particular organisation relied heavily on its in-bound calls for sales and customer support and any change could have exposed a significant pat of its operations. In return, I once interviewed an IT manager who had completed a wholesale move to UC and as a result was more confident in the reliability and business continuity than with the legacy PABX.

Those pertinent issues can't be ignored if a UC implementation is going to ascend to its full potential. I exactly mention voice quality as there is little point in having a feature-rich UC system if the basic functionality people expect is less than what they have come to expect from traditional telephone systems. As a facilities manager once said to me: "VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) does not automatically equal IP telephony."

The bright side

On the bright side, the good news is UC systems, just in case to providing the functionality we've covered on this blog, can as a matter of fact supersede legacy telephone systems in many areas - from voice quality to DR.

The point about reliability is an interesting one. Sure the traditional PABX systems have a good reputation for being rock solid, nevertheless CIOs should ask themselves what the business impact might be if one did fail, or could not be replicated whne the time arrives for business continuity.