So Tell Me, Where Does It Hurt?

From the December 2007 Edition
of Windows IT Pro
Keith Lynch
Feature
InstantDoc #97306
Windows IT Pro

As you meet with each area of your business it’s good to have an understanding of some of the business pains that a UC solution can solve. Here are some examples by business area of typical problems that you can present to help others in your company see the value of unifying communications.

Business Area	Issues or Pain Today That Could Be Solved by Unified Communications
Executive Management	Employees wasting time trying to coordinate communications Poor access to key employees for decision making Slowness to decisions and market Poor retention of key employees due to inadequate tools (this is especially important with the generation that has grown up with technology and expects adequate tools)
Finance	Additional costs of maintaining multiple communications systems Travel costs spinning out of control Mobile phone costs increasing Poor visibility into sales, cash flow, and inventory due to disconnection between sales, suppliers, manufacturing, and delivery Difficulty providing accurate financial reporting due to poor reporting from the field Difficulties in documenting compliance with internal and external regulations
Sales	Inability to contact key employees at the time they’re needed Customer difficulty reaching sales representatives easily No way for sales representatives to easily check on inventories or capabilities while on sales calls Access to key technical resources in the field limited by budgetary and resource constraints
Marketing	Inability to quickly contact and coordinate corporate communications during a PR emergency New products time to market slowed due to the inability to coordinate key employees Webinars, virtual conferences, and solution offerings can’t be provided or require costly third-party systems to produce
Customer Service	Customers are unable to contact customer service through standard means such as IM, resulting in a slower time to resolution Resolution of customer problems is delayed because of the inability to contact key internal personnel Customer service representatives are tied to their desktop because they can’t provide services remotely
Human Resources	Recruitment is difficult because ineffective communications systems are a turn-off for new employees Training remote groups effectively is difficult because of inadequate technology Turnover is high due to the inability to bring a sense of belonging or involvement to remote employees
Project Management	Managing remote teams and projects is difficult because of inadequate technology Conference-call meetings are ineffective because participants can’t communicate effectively Productivity and quality are impaired because inadequate tools preclude effectively collaborating in real time
Information Technology	Must support multiple skill sets to maintain multiple communications and collaboration systems Constant need to reduce the costs of existing communications devices and means
Security/Legal	Must provide auditing of all types of communications, including IM Must comply with regulations requiring that confidential data is not hosted on a third-party system Must provide “ethical walls” of communications, preventing groups of employees from communicating with one another Must provide proof of end-to-end compliance with auditing requirements Must be able to easily comply with subpoena requesting information across multiple systems

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