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The BT Unified Communications Quick Start Service enables organisations to cut through the confusion that surrounds the subject, and understand how they can exploit new and integrated team working technologies to dramatically improve the effectiveness of their communications. Guiding participants through a consultative, structured process, BT‟s experts introduce the benefits of unified communications and collaboration, and show where technologies can support participants‟ plans for converged IT and telecommunications.
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BT One Communications that unify
The BT Unified
Communications Quick Start
Service enables organisations
to cut through the confusion that
surrounds the subject, and understand
how they can exploit new and integrated
team working technologies to
dramatically improve the effectiveness
of their communications. Guiding
participants through a consultative,
structured process, BT‟s experts
introduce the benefits of unified
communications and collaboration, and
show where technologies can support
participants‟ plans for converged IT and
telecommunications.
BT Unified Communications
Quick Start Service
About BT‟s Unified Communications Quick Start Service
Unified Communications As business communications have
evolved from telephony through to
email, and more recently, instant
messaging applications, the
complexity of the management task
has grown significantly. For many
organisations, the stovepipe
implementation of isolated technology
solutions has meant that they have
failed to gain maximum benefit from
their communications and
collaboration tools and
infrastructures.
Drawbacks of stovepipe approach to communications and collaboration planning:
Reduced productivity
Increased costs
Overburdened infrastructure
Business delays
Barriers to effective working and
decision making
Employee stress
Unified communications (UC)
describes a state in which technology
can facilitate almost every type of
business communication between
almost anyone at any time. Fuelled
by the rapid consumer adoption of
technologies like instant messaging
and VoIP (Voice over Internet
Protocol), UC is being promoted
aggressively by many vendors. The
result has been to create confusion
for corporate decision-makers
seeking to implement scalable UC
solutions over their evolving
infrastructures.
Deployed correctly, UC can transform
productivity and empower a
workforce by taking collaboration to a
new level. Implementing UC poorly
can saddle an organisation with yet
another isolated island of technology.
In developing its 21st Century
Network (21CN) – BT‟s new, secure
and intelligent communications
infrastructure – BT has faced and
overcome the pitfalls of UC
implementation, giving our customers
access to a UC-ready infrastructure
and tremendous implementation
expertise.
Exploiting Unified Communications The broad goal of UC is to offer users
a single communications interface
which can include video, voice,
instant messaging, presence
awareness and collaboration. At its
core is the deployment of selected
technologies at appropriate points
along an organisation‟s journey
towards converged IT and
telecommunications. Behind the
scenes, networks can be
consolidated into a single IP
environment, and IT infrastructures
migrated and rationalised into a
minimal number of instances. This
UC infrastructure can then be
employed by real-time
communications in an organisation‟s
business processes and workflows.
BT‟s Quick Start Service
concentrates on helping
organisations to make these timing
and technology choices correctly –
reducing risk and adding significant
value to the organisation.
Strategically, UC offers the following
compelling benefits:
Unifies teams – by breaking down
barriers to communication
Expands value – by enabling the
creation of business networks in
real-time
Protects the business – by making it
easy to access corporate expertise
Maximises impact – by allowing the
best teams to assemble and
perform virtually
The BT Unified Communications
Quick Start Service is a short and
focused introduction to these
opportunities. It includes an
assessment of your company‟s
readiness for UC along with a
planning exercise to define the scope
and shape of the best deployment
strategy for your organisation. This
may include a number of initial
options such as an in-house pilot
initiative or a study of the Return on
Investment (ROI) that UC could bring
to your business.
With unified communications,
workers collaborate with colleagues
to solve business problems on an
immediate basis. Unified
communications eliminate technology
silos and integrate applications to
provide richer functionality for
existing desktop and communication
applications.”
Forrester, November 2006
“
The process
Status checklist Implementing UC can affect many
business functions, and so it is
important to get a broad picture of the
state of your infrastructure, your
organisational awareness of UC and
your forward plans.
The Quick Start Service begins with a
Status Checklist that gives BT‟s UC
experts the relevant information to
shape our service to your specific
needs. From here, we can provide a
Quick Start Workshop, a UC
Assessment and a Proof-of-Concept,
as well as a comprehensive UC
solution.
Level one: Quick Start Workshop When our UC experts have an initial
understanding of your path towards
converged IT and
telecommunications, BT will host an
interactive workshop to highlight how
a UC strategy can align with your
plans. This includes a discussion of
how existing technologies can
combine to provide the benefits of
unified communications and
collaboration. Topics likely to be
discussed include:
Voice
Video
Audio conferencing
Web conferencing
Instant messaging and presence
Mobility
File and application sharing –
records management and archiving
Team spaces and workgroup
collaboration
Implementation and migration best
practice
Security
BT‟s experts will describe realistic scenarios in which UC technologies can work
together to address critical customer business issues:
Originator issues: • Managing multiple devices
• Managing multiple telephone numbers
• Disconnected applications
• Delays
Receiver issues: • Rising number of emails, instant messages
voicemail and mobile phone calls
• Communications overload
Mismatch between • Communications are frequently technology and
business disconnected from business process
applications
• Declining productivity
• Inability of users to access the right information
and people quickly
• Need for IP technologies to offer greater flexibility
to support agile organisations
Complexity of managing • Escalating costs
disparate systems • Standardisation, consolidation and rationalisation
of investment in existing infrastructure
The result of the workshop is an engaging and powerful presentation, giving you
invaluable feedback on the potential of UC to transform your organisation‟s
communications capabilities. It will help you gain a better understanding of the
practical application of the technologies, align people‟s expectations of UC and
build a business case for your future communications.
The process
Level two: Quick Start Assessment The UC Quick Start Assessment
gives you a detailed understanding
of exactly what UC can deliver and
how it can add specific value to your
organisation.
Armed with insights from the Status
Checklist and / or Workshop
discussions, BT‟s experts engage
with your decision-makers to assess
how UC will benefit selected
business processes and user
communities. We interview key
stakeholders, identify where UC
technologies will have the greatest
impact and carefully consider the
potential effects on people,
processes and the overall structure
of your organisation. Building this
roadmap enables us to
communicate a strong vision of the
benefits that UC will bring to your
business, together with a broad
awareness of how to progress it.
BT‟s representatives lead you
through the process of building an
ROI model that presents the
financial case for a UC programme.
This helps to justify and secure
budgets for business change,
strengthen relationships among
stakeholders and foster a better
understanding of the issues faced
by other parts of the business. The
ROI model includes a detailed
estimate of the savings that UC will
bring to:
The ICT organisation
UC end users
Business outputs
In each of the above categories,
there are opportunities for ROI in
hard cost-savings, productivity
benefits and business output
benefits. For example, UC may
reduce costs in both the ICT budget
and the travel budget, and increase
productivity for end users and ICT
professionals. Where such
opportunities make sense in the
context of your own organisation,
our ROI statement will describe
them in detail.
This considered approach provides
you with the information you need to
demonstrate the compelling financial
case for change across your
business.
Additional Professional
Services
For clients who have established
that evolution towards UC is
essential for their business, BT can
provide the expertise to implement a
Proof-Of-Concept or detailed final
solution.
The scope of this activity will vary
according to the client requirement
and can only be assessed after a
thorough analysis of the business
objectives, such as that delivered as
an output of the UC Quick Start
Assessment.
The Outcome
Business people today sit at the
heart of a network of devices and
services, many of which they
transport from location to location.
UC automatically delivers
information about which devices and
services are available, which makes
the communications landscape
much more efficient. By linking
voice, mobile and data services with
the desktop, users can take part in
almost any kind of communication to
anyone at any time, wherever they
are.
BT‟s Unified Communications Quick
Start Service will help you to identify
how you can leverage your plans for
converged IT and
telecommunications to propel your
organisation‟s communications
capabilities to an entirely new level.
The benefits of these initiatives
depend on every customer‟s specific
situation but regularly include:
Simpler collaboration and
improved productivity – users
benefit from a more controlled and
manageable communications
interface, allowing more effective
working and collaboration. Using
instant messaging as an
occasional alternative to mobile
phones can lead to a 30%
reduction in costs, a 40%
reduction in traffic and a 15%
reduction in voice messages
(source: Unified Communications
Applications: Uses and Benefits,
Sage Research, January 2006)(1)
Increased responsiveness –
converged voice and data
facilitates a rapid response to
changing business needs and
seamless communication of
information to all stakeholders
Increased business agility –
geographically dispersed team
members can function more
effectively as a group, and benefit
from shared resources and
information
Reduced cost – significant cost
savings can be achieved through
more effective communications
management and reduced travel
costs
Increased client-facing time –
people can increase time spent
with customers through more
effective communications
management
Growth of business ecosystems
– UC stimulates the emergence of
informal business networks that
provide additional opportunities to
expand business throughout the
value chain
Reduced carbon emissions –
UC reduces the need to travel,
lowering an organisation‟s carbon
footprint and improving its green
credentials
(1) Source: Unified Communications
Applications: Uses and Benefits, Sage
Research, January 2006
After a BT Unified
Communications Quick Start you
will be able to:
Recognise the strategic benefits
UC can bring to your organisation
Appreciate a range of technology
solutions that combine to deliver
UC today, and understand how
they can help build a benefits case
and drive ROI
Understand how to approach the
implementation of UC over your
existing infrastructure
Assess the ROI of proposed UC
initiatives to your organisation
Embark upon a carefully-planned
pilot implementation of UC
technologies
The Outcome
Status checklist
The questions in this document will help BT‟s experts to assess your organisation‟s ability to implement UC with minimum risk and maximum returns. Please tick the relevant box or provide a numeric rating as appropriate, and summarise your replies in the table at the end of the checklist.
1. Organisational awareness Is the phrase „unified communications‟ recognised across your organisation?
Yes Partially No
Does a member of your IT organisation specifically own unified communications
Yes Partially No
Is there a senior director with specific responsibility for unified communications?
Yes Partially No
Does your organisation have a clear and specific policy for the introduction of UC?
Yes Partially No
Have your employees installed technologies like instant messaging without official sanction from the IT department – e.g. Yahoo, MSN or AOL?
Yes Partially No
Does your senior management recognise the potential benefits that UC could bring to your organisation?
Yes Partially No
Has your organisation ever conducted an official pilot project that employs UC technologies?
Yes Partially No
Have you ever assembled any cross-functional teams (e.g. legal, HR, security) to identify potential problems/opportunities that might arise from unified communications?
Yes Partially No
2. Opportunities Does your organisation require ongoing internal and external collaboration?
Yes Partially No
Does your organisation strive for deeper communication and collaboration with customers and partners?
Yes Partially No
Does your organisation engage in close partnerships or affiliations with external organisations?
Yes Partially No
Do you have a distributed workforce?
Yes Partially No
Does your organisation frequently need to train people in multiple locations?
Yes Partially No
Does your organisation employ many people who spend a lot of time on the road?
Yes Partially No
Do you operate in highly-competitive market conditions?
Yes Partially No
Does your organisation give employee productivity and job satisfaction a high priority?
Yes Partially No
3. IT infrastructure Have you deployed, or are you considering deploying any of the following:
Exchange 2007 – email?
Yes Partially No
Microsoft Live Communications Server – instant messaging?
Yes Partially No
Microsoft Office Communications Server?
Yes Partially No
Microsoft SharePoint – team collaboration or document management?
Yes Partially No
Microsoft Windows Mobile – mobile access to IT applications?
Yes Partially No
Microsoft LiveMeeting?
Yes Partially No
Audio, web and/or video conferencing solutions?
Yes Partially No
Cisco TelePresence?
Yes Partially No
Cisco Unified Communications Manager?
Yes Partially No
Cisco Unified MeetingPlace?
Yes Partially No
Cisco Unified Presence Server?
Yes Partially No
Cisco Unity?
Yes Partially No
IBM Lotus Notes?
Yes Partially No
IBM Lotus QuickPlace?
Yes Partially No
IBM Lotus Sametime?
Yes Partially No
Webex?
Yes Partially No
An MPLS backbone?
Yes Partially No
Any other instant messaging & presence solutions?
Yes Partially No
4. Telecommunications infrastructure Have you implemented an IP-enabled voice infrastructure?
Yes Partially No
Does your organisation have an ongoing plan to integrate its IT and telecommunications infrastructures?
Yes Partially No
Status checklist
5. Communications channels and collaboration tools used within your organisation, your suppliers, your partners and your customers Please rank how widely each of the tools on the left hand column is used for each audience - 1 being least used and 5 being most used.
Your organisation
Suppliers Partners Customers
Instant messaging
Mobile voice
Fixed line voice
Click to call
Audio conferencing
Web conferencing
Video conferencing
Application sharing
Presence
Blogs
Podcasts
Teamspaces and workgroup collaborations
Wikis
6. Team working in your organisation, your suppliers, your partners and your customers Please check in the appropriate box – effortless, moderate or difficult.
How easy is it to track down and contact colleagues and clients first time?
Your organisation
Suppliers Partners Customers
Effortless
Moderate
Difficult
How easy is it to find information you share regularly in a team and be confident you have the latest version?
Your organisation
Suppliers Partners Customers
Effortless
Moderate
Difficult
How easy is it to set up and conduct ad-hoc conference calls?
Your organisation
Suppliers Partners Customers
Effortless
Moderate
Difficult
Status checklist
7. Summary
Yes Partially No
Subtotal Subtotal Subtotal
1. Organisational awareness
2. Opportunities
3. IT infrastructure
4. Telecommunications infrastructure
5. Communications channels Top ranked Second ranked Third ranked
Your organisation
Your suppliers
Your partners
Your customers
6. Team working # of „effortless‟ # of „moderate‟ # of „difficult‟
Your organisation
Your suppliers
Your partners
Your customers
Why BT?
BT has a unique understanding of both traditional voice
networks and modern digital communications – two domains
critical for UC success. Scalable from local networks to
global enterprises, BT‟s solutions enable customers to start
on a very small scale and gradually increase their
commitment and integration as their experience grows. As
we build our 21st Century Network, UC is beginning to shape
the way BT itself actually does business – joining up a
multitude of communications channels into a single, flexible
medium that lets users choose how they interact with it.
BT‟s technologies and expertise can validate a customer‟s
infrastructure across the local and wide areas and into the
data centre and IT environments. They can pinpoint issues
within that end-to-end infrastructure and deploy fixes to
ensure it is UC-ready. Able to deliver a seamless service
across both the IT and telecommunications environments,
BT offers guaranteed service levels under the promise of a
single service level agreement from the application to the
wires.
UC is a unique combination of technologies – fixed
telephony, mobile infrastructure and information technology.
BT is the only company that possesses the right
combination of skills, services, experience and infrastructure
to deliver a complete, industrial-strength UC vision.
Through its diverse technology heritage, BT‟s 21st Century
Network draws these strands together – network
infrastructure, mobility and communications and
collaboration. Customers everywhere stand to benefit from
the realisation of a vision of a converged, multimedia world
where customers can access any communications service,
from any device, anywhere in the world – at broadband
speed.
Integration of IT, fixed and mobile infrastructure
A network embedded with unified communications applications
Information sharing and collaboration when in and out of the office
Offices worldwide The services described in this publication are subject to availability
and may be modified from time to time. Services and equipment are provided subject to British Telecommunications plc’s
respective standard conditions of contract. Nothing in this publication forms any part of any contract.
British Telecommunications plc 2011.
Registered office: 81 Newgate Street, London EC1A 7AJ Registered in England No: 1800000
BT‟s track record in the provision of
messaging, telephony and
conference services extends over a
period of 16 years, serving a range of
global customers:
BT Manages more than 25 million
email messages each day, and over
1.5 million customer email accounts
BT occupies a leader slot in
Gartner‟s Magic Quadrant for
networked IT services
We support over 6,000 audio
conferences every day – more than
two million minutes a day
We support over 1,000 video
conferences each week
BT provides messaging technology
to over 250 customers for in-house
deployment
BT is Europe‟s largest conferencing
business with over 12,000 ports
BT hosts and manages Microsoft‟s
EMEA LiveMeeting Web
conferencing platform
BT has key partner relationships
with industry-leaders like Microsoft,
Cisco, IBM and Nortel
BT is deploying the world-leading
21st century network which is
transforming communications
across the globe
About the BT Quick Start series BT‟s Quick Starts are concise,
service-led engagements focused on
key services and technologies that
are of critical importance to
organisations within the digital
networked economy. These services
and technologies combine to form a
wider infrastructure model, each
representing significant advances and
long-term efficiency for the
organisation deploying them.
Quick Starts can be used as an
integral part within an organisation‟s
development roadmap. They enable
customers to assess, test, plan and
establish the validity of each service
or technology in manageable parts.
Each is formed of defined stages with
clear outcomes and will provide the
necessary information, not only for
the technical aspects of deployment,
but also for the commercial
justification of infrastructure, network
or other changes.
What next?
We can take you through the benefits
and implications that would directly
affect your organisation. In addition,
we can help to build tangible
examples that are more valuable to
your business stakeholders.
Contact your BT Account Manager to
arrange a meeting and discuss
collaborative working in more detail.
