Unified Comms experts talk about ROI, Google, govt and philosophy

“The key here is that all the tools that we deliver are business productivity tools, and anything we add into it should be added seamlessly because the whole package contains business productivity tools based around the things that businesses need.”
Customers were taking up these new technologies in new and creative ways, said Melnick.

He cited the example of an Australian bank whose ICT officer used to travel 42 weeks a year to train local staff.

“He doesn’t have to travel anymore. Instead he hosts a weekly teleconference with 42 local managers at once. And because it’s a teleconference, it can be recorded in case anyone couldn’t attend.”

Governments and UC technology
Florian from Dimension Data said that governments had been early adopters of UC technology.

“In the health care vertical, we have some of our best case studies of implementing UC technology. While it varies from vertical to vertical, they are certainly not against it.”

But White from Telstra disagreed. “I see governments not going for UC technology because of DSD (Defence Signals Directorate) accreditation. We see that our government clients are staying on existing systems because they’re concerned about security.

“While I think some of their concerns are unreal, they are certainly being more cautious. We don’t see that kind of concern in areas like education, which can realise the immediate benefits of teleconferencing, but in our other large government clients, there has been some reluctance.”

Microsoft had a different perspective, said Melnick.

“We’re seeing a lot of uptake by state and federal governments in Australia. We’ve seen a fast take-up of teleconferencing and exchange. Part of that is because we have military-rated security built into our exchanges.

“The next step is voice, and the question is whether it’s a hybrid or full-voice deployment. We see customers who are looking at both solutions. It depends on the department, their level of engagement with other departments are particularly interested in federation.”

’Beware of new companies – including Google’

Melnick closed the panel with a cautionary warning for buyers: be wary of companies that are branching out into new areas -- and that includes Google.

“As we always remind our customers, make sure you work with providers, no matter who it is, that has proven experience in that area. Work with partners or application providers or people who have experience – and Microsoft has experience.

“I think it’s important to test whether the company can actually provide the services or whether you’re paying for the company to find their way in an unfamiliar market. I don’t mean to pick on Google, because a lot of companies don’t have experience. But Google is one of them.”

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