How Unified Communication Can Improve Your Business

Unified Communications is designed for one thing – to take it easier and more cost effective for employees to connect, and to improve their ability to connect with customers and business partners. The general premise is to merge two or more communications into one easy-to-use interface. Generally, we’re talking about phone calls, instant messaging, conferences and collaboration.

The purpose of this blog is to identify the key drives and pains that small and medium businesses face, and to briefly show how improvements can positively impact the bottom line.

Top Business Challenges

Small and medium businesses are often faced with competition with from larger enterprises. To effectively compete, you need the right tools. Some of the major challenges faced include:

Pressure on Key Employees

Smaller organizations often have a few key “go-to” employees who are in great demand. Because of their critical role, their time is at a premium. What they need are tools that can prioritize their communications.

Owners Who Need to be Everywhere

The need to be constantly available means you’ve got to take calls from anywhere. Technology that stays with you, allows you to identify important contacts, routes communications and enables collaboration is critical.

Multi-Functional Roles

Any employee at a small or medium business leads a busy professional life that requires multiple roles. Juggling customers, partners, colleagues and tasks means you need efficient and time sensitive tools.

Limited IT and Telco Expertise

Small and Medium businesses don’t generally have the same resources and staff to support advanced telecommunication technologies. Have tools that are easy to understand, justify, deploy and manage is essential.

Unified Communications – Improving Business

The integration of voice and other communications makes it easier for your employees to identify and locate people quickly, and access and share critical information. Decision making is faster and better, and customer service is enhanced. By converging resources, the cost of communications, including voice, instant messaging and conferencing, is cut.

The Three Benefits of UC

There are three areas decision makers should pay special attention to:

Customer Services – Skills-based routing, conferencing, and presence within UC make it easier to stay in touch with customers and support their needs.

Improved Productivity – UC uses presence information and “click to communicate” capabilities to speed information to the right people. Collaboration is improved and the numbers of interactions to complete a task are reduced. This means orders are filled faster, decisions are made more quickly, and productivity is increased.

Lower Cost of Communications

A UC Solution may appear expensive, but properly designed and deployed, your communications costs can be reduced. Voice calls and volume is reduced thanks to Instant Message Chats; Travel Time is reduced thanks to audio, video and web conferencing; and Conferencing is delivered more cheaply because you can avoid expensive conference hosting services.

When Do You Consider Unified Communications?

If you’re moving to a new location.

If your old phone system will no longer be supported by the vendor.

If your business is growing and you want to “reach next level.”

If you’ve lost too many sales because opportunities are not getting to the right people quickly enough.

If you hear too many (or any) negative customer service stories.

If your employees work from the road or out of the office—and you can’t reach them when you need them.

Conclusion

Look for partners that can customize a solution that fits your specific business needs and budget. The “one size fits all” or single appliance compromise isn’t going to address what you want, or where you want to go. A competent partner will work with you and address not just the technologies, but the “use case scenarios” that are critical for successful adoption.

Tim Krueger, PEI

Support Your Investments

More often than not, when presented with a quote for either hardware or software, there is a maintenance/support quote provided as well. Many people don’t understand why they need to pay additional for this or don’t know what exactly they get with each support contract they purchase. Because of that, I thought I would outline a very short list of the support we recommend with a few of the products we at PEI work with, and provide links to find out more.

1. HP CarePack: Hardware and software support, installation services, education services, and premium support options. An addition to the standard HP warranties. Here is what HP has to say about their CarePack services:

a. “Through HP Care Pack Services we get new systems and services up and running sooner. We help IT professionals use hardware and software effectively. We provide proactive support to help prevent system downtime. And when failures do occur, we provide the level of response you need to meet the needs of your business—whenever and wherever you need it.”

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/business-services/it-services.html?compURI=1077422

2. Microsoft Software Assurance: Provides many benefits in addition to Microsoft software. It also makes renewing/upgrading your Microsoft products easier. Here’s a brief description from Microsoft:

a. “With its distinctive set of benefits, the Microsoft Software Assurance program is truly unique. It offers new software versions, deployment planning services, 24×7 phone and Web support, end-user training, exclusive desktop technologies and more – all designed to help you get the most from your organization’s Volume Licensing purchases.”

b. “These benefits can vary by volume licensing program (such as an Enterprise Agreement or Open Value Agreement), and the number of qualifying licenses you have enrolled in Software Assurance. Use the resources and tools below to learn more about the Software Assurance benefits available to your organization.”

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/software-assurance/check-your-benefits.aspx

3. Cisco SMARTnet: With multiple service levels (24×7, 8×5, software support) Cisco SMARTnet support helps you resolve critical network issues. Here’s Cisco’s take on their own product:

a. “Cisco SMARTnet Provides:

i. Global 24 hour access to Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC)

ii. Access to online knowledge base, communities and tools

iii. Hardware replacement options, including 2-hour, 4-hour, and next business day

iv. Operating system software updates

v. Smart, proactive diagnostics and real-time alerts on devices enabled with Smart Call Home”

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/svcs/ps3034/ps2827/ps2978/serv_group_home.html

Erika Larson, PEI

Task Durations

In my experience I have seen several methods of deriving task durations related to projects. Some of them include:

1. A cocktail napkin dropped on a project manager’s desk with start and finish date for the project based on last night’s executive dinner and the plans and commitments made.

2. The project manager being told unilaterally to put together a project schedule based on limited information which might include a project charter or other high level information

These methods have always led to poor results and even worse project plans.

My suggestion is that the project manager relies on both a rigorous requirements definition and the expertise of the technical resources that will be doing the actual work on the project. In this method, the project manager will convene at least one meeting in which the specific project tasks will be discussed. During this discussion it is important to break the tasks down to a reasonable level. It has been repeatedly proven that the accuracy of duration estimates improves as the tasks are broken into smaller subtasks. It is also important to include the actual technicians in the planning phase from the “skin in the game” perspective. After all, technicians are far more likely to meet their deadlines if they themselves established them, verses having an executive or project manager dictate them.

My recommendation is to always ensure that the project team works closely together in both the baseline and any updates to the plan as the project continues towards completion.

Dan Thompson, PEI

How to Maximize Your Unified Communications Return on Investment

I preach all of the time that I believe a well-executed Unified Communications strategy can significantly transform a business. Effective communications and collaboration can increase an organization’s velocity, trim inefficiencies and drive accuracy. A poorly implemented UC solution is simply expensive and frustrating.

The simple truth is that if you’re unwilling to use UC technologies fully, invest the time to be effective with the features, and plan for the transformation across your co-workers, you’re probably not going to get the ROI that’s been promised.

Like any other transformative technology, there are some steps you can take that will help maximize your ROI.

1. Define your Expectations – figure out how you communicate and document what tools, applications and method you’re using. This is critical when developing your “use case” scenarios. Knowing what you need (or what you’re hoping for) is critical in the planning stage.

2. Identify your ROI Model – determining your ROI is all about quantifying the results. What are your old costs and revenues based on your “old way” of communication? Next, figure out what’s going to be impacted when you shift to a UC strategy. Is video conferencing going to save on travel? Do old tools or systems go away? Identifying each impact will plug into your ROI model.

3. Organize Your Workforce – Within IT, UC will consolidate networks, servers, storage, etc. This is going to realign both your equipment and your teams. Organizations with separate telecommunications or video conferencing resources can most likely be consolidated. Your UC design team should address all of the involved areas.

4. Clean Up Your House – Your network may need to be updated to handle UC. A poor network foundation unable to handle to demands of a UC environment will leave your users in the cold. Invest the time and resources up front to be ready. Rolling out UC on an antiquated network will spell disaster.

5. Don’t Think Bandwidth Will Fix Everything – It’s the quality of your network, not your network bandwidth, that will spell success. We see businesses all the time that think a bigger pipe will solve their problems. Network performance is addressed at the core. Failing to address quality will only hide your problems and are devilishly complex to fix after a UC deployment is completed.

6. Test Before you Go Live – take the time to map out the logical and physical paths that your UC traffic will follow. Make sure those pathways can handle the increase load and still deliver the quality of service you expect. Many UC deployments have gone awry because no one took the time to test the architecture. A good test plan will allow you to tune prior to “go live”. Remember, your users aren’t going to tolerate much tweaking and tuning, so get it right before they see it.

Tim Krueger, PEI

Confirmed Fit Sales Strategy

A sales strategy that can be employed in certain circumstances and one I have used on several occasions is what is commonly called a Confirmed Fit engagement. In a Confirmed Fit we combine the steps of internal requirements gathering, vendor demonstration surveys, proof of concept, and implementation surveys into a single pass through the organization. The Vendor organization would deliver a fully staffed team of experts to work on-site through the Confirmed Fit process.

The deliverables for the Confirm Fit are:

• Detailed Implementation Proposal
• Project Plan & Timeline
• Software/Hardware Configuration
• License and/or On Demand Proposal
• Business Case Analysis (if necessary)

The deliverables are not altogether different from what would be delivered in a more traditional evaluation that includes an RFP, RFI, RFQ or others. It’s really the process and benefits that are different which include:

• Discount: The vendor would typically match any previously negotiated customer discount percentage. This process can take weeks to work through with a new vendor.
• Terms & Conditions: The vendor will match previously negotiated business terms for the contract.
• Compressed Timeline: The Vendor is typically prepared to deliver a test environment for the customer’s implementation team within a compressed time frame.
• Resource Commitment: will deliver a full team on-site at no cost to work through the Confirm Fit. (See below proposed team)

In exchange for the above, the prospect agrees to not issue an RFP or bring in competitive vendor solutions while engaged with the subject Vendor. If the prospect determines through the Confirmed Fit engagement that the vendor is not the right solution than clearly, the parties dis-engage and part ways as friends. However, commitment to this process from the prospect’s management and executive staff is required. Additionally, there is no legal involvement or binding contracts. It is typically a ‘handshake’ agreement with pre-defined timeframes, responsibilities, and milestones.

Matt Teahan, PEI

Microsoft Exchange 2010 – Using Proxying and Redirection (Part 1)

In a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 organization, a Client Access server can act as a proxy for other Client Access servers within the organization. This is useful when multiple Client Access servers are present in different Active Directory sites in an organization and at least one of those sites isn’t exposed to the Internet.

A Client Access server can also perform redirection for Microsoft Office Outlook Web App URLs and for Exchange ActiveSync devices. Redirection is useful when a user connects to a Client Access server that isn’t in their local Active Directory site or if a mailbox has moved between Active Directory sites. It’s also useful if the user should be using a better URL, for example, one that’s closer to the Active Directory site their mailbox resides in.

Although the Client Access server’s response can vary by protocol, when a Client Access server receives a request for a user whose mailbox is in an Active Directory site other than the one the Client Access server belongs to, it looks for the presence of an ExternalURL property on the relevant virtual directory on a Client Access server that’s in the same Active Directory site as the user’s mailbox. If the ExternalURL property exists, and the client type supports redirection (for example, Outlook Web App or Exchange ActiveSync), the Client Access server will issue a redirect to that client. If there’s no ExternalURL property present, or if the client type doesn’t support redirection (for example, POP3 or IMAP4), the Client Access server will try to proxy the connection to the target Active Directory site.

This topic explains proxying and redirection, when each is used, and how to configure your Client Access servers for each scenario.

Overview of Proxying

In Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, the front-end server communicates with the back-end server over HTTP. In Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange 2010, the Client Access server communicates with an Exchange Mailbox server over RPC. You must have an Exchange 2010 Client Access server in every Active Directory site that contains an Exchange 2010 Mailbox server. Proxying occurs when one Client Access server sends traffic to another Client Access server. An Exchange 2010 Client Access server can proxy requests in the following situations:

• Between Exchange 2010 Client Access servers Proxying requests between two Exchange 2010 Client Access servers enables organizations that have multiple Active Directory sites to designate one Client Access server as an Internet-facing server and have that server proxy requests to Client Access servers in sites that have no Internet presence. The Internet-facing Client Access server then proxies the request to the Client Access server closest to the user’s mailbox.
• Between an Exchange 2010 Client Access server and Exchange 2007 Client Access servers Proxying requests between an Exchange 2010 Client Access server and an Exchange 2007 Client Access server within one Active Directory site or between Active Directory sites enables Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007 to coexist in the same organization.

Proxying is supported for clients that use Outlook Web App, Exchange ActiveSync, the Exchange Control Panel (ECP), POP3, IMAP4, and Exchange Web Services. Proxying is supported from one Client Access server to another Client Access server when the destination Client Access server is running the same version of Microsoft Exchange as, or an earlier version of Microsoft Exchange than, the source Client Access server.

Client Access proxying

In the previous figure, the mailbox of User 1 is located on Mailbox server 1. The mailbox of User 2 is located on Mailbox server 2, and the mailbox of User 3 is located on Mailbox server 3. Each Mailbox server is in a different Active Directory site. User 1 can access their mailbox through Client Access server 1 without using proxying, and User 2 can access their mailbox through Client Access server 2. If User 3 tries to access their mailbox through Client Access server 1 or 2, either server will proxy their request to Client Access server 3. Client Access server 3 isn’t Internet facing but can receive requests from other servers inside the firewall. Proxying isn’t visible to the user.

Overview of Redirection

Outlook Web App users who access an Internet-facing Client Access server in a different Active Directory site than the site that contains their mailbox can be redirected to the Client Access server in the same site as their Mailbox server if that Client Access server is Internet facing. When an Outlook Web App user tries to connect to a Client Access server outside the Active Directory site that contains their Mailbox server, they’ll see a Web page that contains a link to the correct Client Access server for their mailbox. This is known as manual redirection. In Exchange 2010 SP2, administrators can configure cross-site silent redirection to enable this redirection process to happen without the user’s knowledge. For more information, see Cross-Site Silent Redirection later in this topic.

Exchange ActiveSync users who access an Internet-facing Client Access server in a different Active Directory site than the site that contains their mailbox can be redirected to the Client Access server in the same site as their Mailbox server if that Client Access server is Internet facing and if the client mobile phone or device has correctly implemented the redirection logic built in to the protocol that’s used when communicating with Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010. The redirection for Exchange ActiveSync users is achieved by sending the device an HTTP 451 error code that contains the URL the device should be using. The device then reconfigures itself to use the new URL.

The following figure shows how redirection works in an organization that has multiple Client Access servers in multiple Active Directory sites.

Redirection for Exchange ActiveSync and Outlook Web App in Exchange 2010

In the previous figure, User 1 usually accesses their mailbox in Active Directory site 1 using their mobile phone. The administrator then moves their mailbox to Mailbox server 2 in Active Directory site 2. The next time the device tries to synchronize, the server responds with an HTTP 451 status error. This contains the URL the device should now use for that user. In step 3 of the sequence, the device reconfigures itself and connects to the specified URL. User 2, whose mailbox is in Active Directory site 2, tries to open their mailbox using Outlook Web App by connecting to Client Access server 1 over the Internet. With manual redirection, as soon as the user authenticates, Client Access server 1 presents a page to the user, with a link to the Outlook Web App URL for the Client Access server in Active Directory site 2. The user clicks the link, is taken to Active Directory site 2, and signs in again to access their mailbox.With silent redirection, when the user authenticates, they’re silently redirected to the Outlook Web App URL for the Client Access server in Active Directory site 2.

-Jacob Eker, PEI

Learning to be a juggler with Microsoft Unified Communications

As technology consultants and engineers we preach to our prospective and current clients every day about technology enabling businesses and the success of organizations.  I’ve been selling technology for over 15 years and it has never been more evident to me that this is absolutely a truth.  I’ve had the enormous joy of welcoming my first child this past November and with her arrival came the instantaneous job of ‘juggler’.  I’ve never been to the circus but I’ve seen jugglers on the street and let me tell you it’s not as easy as it looks.  My metaphorical jugging of course is the work, life, family set that we working parents must balance and try to do it well.

Fortunately for me I work for a technology company that has has daily routine of practicing what we preach. Each employee has a laptop, headset, camera and cell phone. Doesn’t sound remarcable but oh the things we can do. Today for instance I was booked back to back with meetings, lunch dates, proposals and family. I had such limited time I wasnt sure how to get it all done. In fact I’m finishing this article on my smartphone while waiting for a doctor’s appointment. But I was able to do it through the magic of integrated phone, video and document sharing. Namely Microsoft.

While working on a document I needed an answer from my engineer, I saw from my Lync window that he was on the road and called his cell, conferenced in my client and finished his proposal. I then uploaded it to Sharepoint where my director could approve at his leasure and emailed the client directly when he was done. 1 down.

Then while on my way to a lunch meeting my mobile Lync client alerted me to an instant message from my purchasing manager. I used my Bluetooth headset to call him and finish an order that had to ship today. 2 down.

During my lunch meeting I realized my client needed me on a video conference in about 20 minutes and I was an hour from my office. I pulled into a coffee shop with wireless, logged in and used the same Bluetooth headset to do a video call and answer their questions. Realizing they needed more of my time but I had to hit the road again I seemlessly transferred the call without them knowing to my cell and jumped into my car. 3 down.

Now I am finishing this ariticle on my smartphone 4 down 1 to go…and hope the doctor can be as efficient and on time as I am with Lync so I can have dinner with my family. Whew. And now the doctor is 20 minutes late …she must not she using Microsoft tools. PEI can definately help her and your organization become expert jugglers in this crazy circus we call life.

-Jennifer Smith, PEI

IT Initiatives for 2012

Based on Industry outlook reports from groups like Information Week and Gartner, it appears that, despite the soft economy, business will continue to invest in IT initiatives that will help expand their business, improve their ability to communicate with customers, vendors and co-workers, extend their brand.

What we’ve been hearing from our customers echoes these reports. The following are some of the areas that will drive core IT spending:

Unified Communications and Mobility. UC projects can take many forms, but a common thread has been the demand to integrate mobile devices (such as Smartphones and Tablets) with the Unified Communication infrastructure current deployed. Given the Apps that are available now, and some of the new resources for video and audio conferencing from organizations such as Microsoft and Polycom, business are coming up with new and creative demands for connectivity and applications. Some of the UC/mobility initiatives we’ve seen lately include “remote sales force”, “work from home”, “small office/home office”, and “on location professional services”.

Data Center Infrastructure. Virtualizing servers and storage and updating data centers to be more redundant, automated and energy efficient were the tip of the iceberg. Businesses are still pursuing these goals, but most companies have only addressed a faction of what can be done. The true economies of scale and cost savings come from a more comprehensive virtualization strategy. Customers understand this and are taking their Data Center designs to the next level. Disaster recovery, management, site recovery and better storage scaling and management are at the heart of these follow on phases. The growth in public and private cloud services will force small and large organizations alike into re-architecting their data center.

Virtual Desktop Pilots. Most companies aren’t ready to take the plunge with converting to a Virtual Desktop (VDI) environment, but many are beginning to understand the inherent value that VDI can bring. The pilot approach allows an organization to work out the technical issues, build a system administration and management model, and begin to calculate the Total Cost of Ownership. The VDI model is no longer restricted to enterprise-sized organization. Small and Medium businesses, especially those with a diverse number of applications, are now starting to take serious interest in VDI.

Management and Monitoring. The recession may appear to be waning, but companies are still forced to do more with less. Advanced technologies, applications that come from blended public and private clouds, mobile work forces, and other new technologies are changing the game. The savings and productivity gains realized are allowing business to outsource management and monitoring services to organizations uniquely suited to supporting these evolving solutions.

-Tim Krueger, PEI

One of the most important and sometimes over looked tasks within the IT world is back-ups. While pretty much everyone has a back plan/strategy in place, many IT professionals fail to execute on their backups. With the over demanding load place on internal IT individuals, many times back-ups fall to the end of the list and become a “get to it when I can” task. I recently had a client that went to go make some changes on their SAN and virtual environment and with one wrong click or two, nearly took down all of their shared storage and servers. While this error occurred after business hours and through the work of our engineering team, we were able to restore them with very little impact to the business; it went to show me how important backups really are.

With the advances in technology, backups have never been easier. There are so many options of backing up to the cloud and disk based backup, the need for the traditional tape backup is no longer out there. PEI was able to help the above mentioned client and many others avoid disaster but should they have not had the right tools in place, then the business would have lost out on hundreds of thousands in revenue. I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone that a proper back-up strategy is vital to your business and should you need any assistance in designing, implementing or testing your backup strategy, PEI is always there to help.

-Arash Zadeh, PEI

Project vs. Portfolio Management

Within the Project Management Office there are two different levels of management, project and portfolio. Project management is usually defined as the management of a specific set of goals and objectives to occur within a defined time period. Projects can vary widely in terms of duration and budget. Portfolio management can be defined in a couple of ways. A portfolio can be a group of similar projects that achieve an overall goal. An example might be implementing several pieces of technology in an infrastructure modernization intuitive. In this type of portfolio there may be multiple projects leading to a common outcome. Another definition for portfolio management is the overall management of all projects within a department or company. Companies as well as project management offices have found business intelligence particularly useful at this level. Metrics that can be measured across an enterprise include financial status, resource planning / allocation and ensuring that individual projects are being completed in the correct order based on a company’s tactical and strategic goals.

-Dan Thompson, PEI