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Getting the best from unified communications

A Bell guide to optimizing your unified communications roadmap

How can we do it -

The smartest way

possible

74

of the new unified communications licenses purchased by organizations will be cloud-based, up from 48% in 2019

The nature of work is evolving. The hybrid workforce is the new business reality: distributed, mobile, working anywhere and anytime. As businesses focus on growth, they need to connect their employees to data, customers, partners and colleagues wherever they are and on any device. Unified communications (UC) is a key driver of that transformation, bringing together multiple enterprise communications streams into a single solution.

Enterprise telephony and UC capabilities (soft clients, conferencing, collaboration, mobility) upgrades will remain top investment priorities for businesses undergoing or planning digital transformation.1

Organizations across all sectors are looking to access a broader suite of communication and collaboration tools so they can better support remote and mobile workers, provide a more consistent user experience on any device,
and be more agile and innovative in the face of heightened competition and technological change.

Over $1M

required in annual staffing costs alone, to operate your own 24/7 UC Network Operations Centre (NOC) with 10-12 full-time employees.3

To get the most out of UC, you need a clear roadmap for deploying and managing it. Whether you’re looking to cut costs, boost productivity or deliver a better user experience, having a plan to guide your transformation journey will help ensure that the UC path you take is aligned with your unique business objectives and operational requirements.

Underlying all of these components is an infrastructure of wireline and wireless connectivity, data centres, and front- and back-end business support systems (BSS) and operating support systems (OSS). This foundation helps enable UC’s quality of service, high performance, availability and security.

Operating Revenue - 2021

(April 2020 - March 2021)

WHAT'S IN THIS GUIDE

Operating Revenue in millions USD

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

Advancements in UC

have been accelerated

by digital transformation.

CONSIDERABLE SOLUTION

Three prominent areas have had a big impact on the evolution of UC.

The Cloud

By integrating UC with supporting infrastructure, organizations
will be able to optimize performance, improve compliance with corporate policies, and enhance access controls.

When UC is paired with artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics applications, organizations will gain access to actionable insights on how their teams are working together.

TAKE UC TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH BELL

Every organization will have a different UC journey – and
a different roadmap to follow. If you’re ready to talk about where you want your UC journey to take you, connect with us.

Visit bell.ca/unifiedcommunications to request a callback or learn more about our unified communications services and solutions.

The User Experience

The Unification of Things

As cloud computing continues to mature, its benefits have extended to UC. Providers can now offer utility-style, pay-as-you-go cloud-based UC solutions supported by more agile service development for faster rollouts of new features and capabilities

These benefits are powered largely by network function virtualization, which is pushing UC to a software-driven model rather than one with on-premises hardware at its core

While the first generation of UC focused on bringing separate applications together, the next generation is focused on delivering an optimal user experience.

Users can access all
of their communication and collaboration tools from a

single integrated application – with the same features, look and feel across all endpoints and devices.

The today

and tomorrow

CONSTITUTING FACTORS

A professional services consultant from Bell can help provide specialized expertise and capacity if there are no provisions.

Start with an inventory of your existing communications systems, applications and tools. Consider how each is used within your organization:

What adds value and what is business critical?
What is overutilized and underutilized?
What would make your current communications approach more effective?
Are there overlapping services or platforms that could be removed or standardized?
Are there opportunities to enhance the user experience?

Next, perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of your communications infrastructure. Include interviews with key stakeholders inside and outside your IT team. This will help you better understand what works, what doesn’t and why.

Finally, look at your current operating models, processes and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – and determine if your metrics of success have changed (or are likely to change) over time.

It's all in the data.

Choose the UC model that’s best for you

With multiple deployment possibilities, it’s important to determine which UC model will work best for you – and help deliver the results you seek.

Do you want to own and manage the entire UC infrastructure? Do you have the in-house resources to manage it all yourself or will you need to contract outside support? What will the total cost of ownership (TCO) be?
Answering these questions ultimately comes back to understanding your business priorities and objectives over both the short and long terms.

Your organization may be facing the challenge of adopting new styles of work, while continuing to support traditional workers and existing technology.

If your team is currently stretched thin across multiple locations and projects, and your current UC solutions can’t meet diverse user needs, you may consider outsourcing your UC.

Influence your UC decisions

If you’re in a highly regulated industry, stringent security requirements are critical for your business. Your data for example, would need to reside in country to meet the data sovereignty regulations. You could opt for an on-premises solution or work with a local cloud provider.

If your aging infrastructure is negatively impacting your bottom line and lead-times and costs are prohibitive to refreshing the infrastructure, the carrier-hosted model could better serve your needs, allowing you to more quickly and cost effectively introduce new apps, features and capabilities to your team.

Evaluating UC apps and services

In addition to deployment and operating models, you also need to determine which apps and services will be the right fit for your workforce.

Consider the following questions:

What is your organization’s ideal work style? Which UC apps and services enable that style of work, both today and tomorrow?
How are your current apps and services evolving? Is their evolution in line with UC industry trends and best practices?
What UC apps and services are available in the market today? How will they evolve in the future?

Make sure to factor in the needs of the people who will actually be using these apps and services.

At its core, UC refers to integrating multiple enterprise communications streams into one unified system.

Starting point: Know your UC needs

Your Users

Your Partners

While office workers will likely want advanced business telephony features, production and development teams will require more robust collaboration tools. You’ll also want to consider how your users’ needs will change over time.

If you’re looking to collaborate more closely
with your external customers and partners, team collaboration capabilities that enable guest access become an important requirement.