WSTA Ticker - May/June 2008 - (Page 8) Adve By Tobias Frevel Unified Communications (UC) has caused a lot of industry buzz and heightened interest through recent announcements from enterprise software and communications vendors - but adoption has been slow. But with ongoing business issues such as: • Customer expectations • Globalization • Fragmentation of the value chains • Revenue growth And CIOs being challenged with: • Increased customer expectations • Short time to market deadlines • Cost management constraints Gaining operational excellence is where UC plays a crucial role. There is a rising demand within financial services for better performance in an environment of increasing client demands, fast changing market conditions and more regulatory scrutiny. To remain competitive, financial service organizations must also provide relevant personalized offers quicker to their clients. To meet these expectations, efficient communication and collaboration throughout the enterprise is vital. Siemens View of Unified Communications Value Unification of all relevant business communications into a simple, seamless user experience Adding value within customers existing communications applications Allowing individuals and workgroups to be more effective and efficient What is Unified Communications? UC solutions are built on a strong voice foundation and focus on embedding communication and collaboration into business processes. This increases workplace productivity and effectiveness. UC solutions should be software-based, open, extensible and support the customer’s choice of services such as: • Presence-awareness across multiple media • Instant messaging • Person-to-person, group audio, video and web- and voice conferencing • Customer interaction centers • Unified messaging • Mobility solutions • CEBP (Communications-Enabled Business Processes) These elements are deployable as software services and embedded within the customer’s existing business application software. Communication Technologies as Strategic Assets To achieve major corporate objectives for growth and operational efficiencies, financial services organizations need appropriate infrastructure and communication tools. Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, believes an open, future-proof infrastructure supports these organizational requirements most efficiently. • Responsive communication via a variety of different information communication technology (ICT) tools from any vendor, which customers and other stakeholders can use at their convenience. • More efficient processes through new collaboration tools, which enhance team-work for geographically, dispersed teams and mobile workers. • Centralization of ICT infrastructure allows the centralization of highly skilled and expensive technical resources, maximizing their efficiency and lowering operating costs. • Reduce the burden of compliance through the ability to capture and track communication and transactions. • Interoperability between different ICT tools from different vendors leading to the development of universal profiles. In addition to Frost & Sullivan’s requirements we also believe any solution needs to be: • Based on open standards / platforms, e.g., SIP, XML, Linux • Support SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) strategies and architecture • Scalable in terms of size and flexibility to remove/add subscribers without adding hardware • Include services such as voice, video, messaging, conferencing, presence and mobility In terms of cost management there is a huge potential for cost saving associated with UC. Nemertes Research asked the early adopters of Communications - Embedded Business Processes Business Processes Integration Rich Aggregated Presence Messaging and Notification Conferencing and Collaboration: Video Data Web Voice Sophisticated Emerging Mainstream Communications Productivity Tools Entry Level Siemens Enterprise Communications “People have become more accustomed to responsiveness. There is going to be a continuous need to communicate faster, which email and voice can not entirely fulfill. Therefore, we will need a wider range of communication tools. I think there are cases, where you want to look someone in the eye when you talk to them to achieve that personal touch, which will lead to video conferencing.” CIO, bank, United States WSTA® Ticker - May/June 2008 8
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