The Business Value of Unifying Communications:

Avaya and HP ProCurve

To enhance communication and collaboration activities while reducing costs, leading enterprises around the world are implementing Unified Communications (UC) solutions from Avaya and HP ProCurve Networking. Avaya’s powerful business communications solutions running on HP ProCurve Adaptive Networks are helping companies to reap the business benefits of UC while avoiding the trade-offs traditionally required when choosing between limited, restrictive single-vendor solutions and hard-to-manage, often poorly supported multi‑vendor approaches.

As Unified Communications (UC) moves increasingly from promise to implementation, questions arise about the best ways to establish UC solutions and how to measure the value of UC from a business perspective. By its nature, UC brings together a number of moving parts and requires coordination among previously disparate technologies, product categories, and providers. Avaya and HP ProCurve share a common approach toward UC—as well as a range of solutions—that promotes effective UC implementations delivering tangible business benefits.

How to approach unifying communications

First of all, let’s define what is meant by “Unified Communications.” According to a white paper from Bloor Research:

“Unified Communications (UC) aims to unite securely and seamlessly all the different business communications channels that exist in a company. That includes voice, video, data, IM, mobility and the Web etc.”
UC is the convergence of all forms of audio, video, and data communications on a common IP network, breaking down barriers of distance, time, and media. Broadly speaking, UC enables seamless and effortless anywhere, anytime, in-any-form, on-any-device communication among people.

The Yankee Group has devised a taxonomy for UC2 based on the concept that UC encompasses two foundational elements plus a number of related, but optional, applications. Those two foundational elements are presence—the ability to immediately determine other users’ availability and willingness to communicate even before establishing a connection—and voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP). The Yankee Group considers VoIP a critical component of any successful UC strategy because over time it will allow nearly every business application and medium to be seamlessly integrated into a common communications solution.

The many potential business benefits of UC

• Reduced costs involved in deploying, managing, supporting, and maintaining a converged infrastructure and integrated solution (compared to multiple, disparate infrastructures and solutions).
• Increased productivity through improved collaboration and less time wasted in tracking people down or exchanging numerous unproductive messages.
• Greater business agility and improved business processes.
• Better support for mobile workers, telecommuters, and branch office personnel.
• Lower expenses associated with business travel.
• Reduced power consumption and energy usage which cuts costs and helps achieve “green” goals.
• Increased revenue potential across all customer contacts.
• Ability to direct more attention to achieving key business objectives because IT staff can spend less time managing and troubleshooting multiple networks and solutions, and business staff can save precious time with easy-to-use and intuitive interfaces that streamline the mechanics of daily communication.
• More consistent security and policy enforcement.
• Increased risk mitigation and improved disaster recovery processes.
• Improved customer service through more timely and coordinated communications which can lead to greater customer retention, increased revenues, and enhanced competitiveness.

According to the Chief Information Officer for one of the largest intellectual property firms in the U.S., the firm has reached a whole new level in communication with its Avaya UC solution. Attorneys can now handle multiple calls at the same time, receive immediate notification of new messages no matter where they are, extend calls to their cellular phones, initiate meet-me conference calls, and more. They can even integrate impromptu video and desktop sharing of data and documents. These value-added functions have given the company a competitive advantage in terms of productivity and client services. Additionally, the firm was able to lower its total cost of ownership (TCO) by cutting phone charges by $18,000 per month and eliminating third-party conference service charges.

Although the benefits of UC might be clear, the optimal path to achieving UC can be less obvious. Unifying communications means ensuring the performance, security, reliability, and manageability of networks andapplications that previously operated independently. Additionally, UC projects that are successful at the pilot level might encounter unexpected problems when scaling to corporate-wide deployments.Avaya and HP ProCurve share a common philosophy and approach to UC that can minimize the pitfalls while delivering tangible benefits more quickly.This approach entails:

• Adopting a clear long-range strategy for the importance of communications in your business.
• Leveraging existing assets where practical through an industry standards-based foundation (to achieve interoperability and maintain flexibility in choosing the solutions best suited for your business, now and in the future) and taking a phased approach to deploying UC solutions.
• Establishing how you will assess the success of UC in your business.

As with most business solutions, good UC starts with your infrastructure.

Shifting users toward UC

Business people today are accustomed to picking up a phone to talk and to leave voicemail messages, while using a different device to send e-mail and instant messages. According to an Avaya survey, up to 64 percent of workers currently carry more than one communications device. For end users, you’ll want to plan concerted training efforts to teach them how to take full advantage of UC.

Avaya and HP ProCurve offer a number of resources designed to help smooth the transition from separate to converged communications, including online training tools such as tutorials and instructional videos, plus other online support resources (e.g., help guides, webcasts, articles, white papers, case studies).

In addition, departmental hands-on training sessions can be very effective. In these sessions, which typically last half a day, representatives from specific business units within a company receive intensive, hands-on instruction in using a UC solution — and in how that UC solution can align with, and improve on, the company’s business processes. These representatives then return to their departments and train their colleagues on the solution.

Without focused training on how to use and optimize a UC solution, it is highly unlikely that your business will gain the full advantages of communications convergence. On the other hand, if everyone at your company fully embraces the power of UC, you are better able to turn these powerful tools into a real competitive advantage.

Already, there are an estimated 100 million teleworkers globally with their numbers growing by nearly 10 percent annually. As users discover how UC solutions can save them time, help them be more efficient, and enable them to better serve customers, they will grow increasingly enthusiastic about the new tools.

For instance, employees who travel frequently, telecommute from home, or work at a remote branch location can use Avaya UC solutions to remain far more accessible to customers and co-workers. Based on data derived from Avaya customer case studies, it is estimated that in-house conferencing and collaboration tools running over an IP network can provide an ROI of as much as 40 to 60 percent. And that is just one example of a potential UC solution.

With increased employee productivity and streamlined operations, companies effectively deploying UC are better positioned to become and remain competitive.

Avaya & HP Procurve

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