Verizon Cuts Through the UC Confusion

Considering the cultural and technical shifts involved when developing a deployment strategy for unified communications and collaboration (UC&C), it’s no wonder many businesses are confused about the value UC&C brings to their bottom line.

“We get a lot of questions from our current customers that need help with managed UC strategy,” explained Laurie Shook, portfolio leader for managed unified communications at Verizon Business. “There is definitely a need in the marketplace for professional services and implementation help, which we recently consolidated into a more focused group. Many comments I get are also surrounding the current major adoption barrier for UC&C, which is confusion in the market as to what it can do for them and how to go about it.”

That’s because the real value for UC&C, Shook explained, lies in accelerating business processes. “Consider the salesperson on the road trying to make a deal at a customer site, and they need to contact three people to get permission to give a special discount,” she said. “If I have UC&C, I can launch a conference call directly from the mobile phone more or less instantly. So it accelerates the business process.”

Enabling that kind of functionality, however, presents a real integration challenge and a barrier for deployment. So, Verizon Business has released a series of tips in order to bring some clarity to the issue of how businesses can link collaboration and core business processes.

“Challenges exist in things like setting up policy — Who will I allow to have mobility? And how do you secure those devices? What desktop applications are we integrating and why?” Shook explained. “Also, the more branches you have, the harder it is to manage. When planning for UC&C, there’s a lot of thought that needs to occur within the consulting phase in terms of aligning functions with business objectives.”

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