Implementation Roadmaps

Independent Insights

UniComm - Working smarter, together

Collaboration – working together with information and ideas to create new knowledge, concepts, products, solutions and other business value – is a powerful, central force in the information age. Collaboration is prominent in enterprise valu...

Springboard - Why working together is working

Interest in collaboration is rising rapidly in Australia. This is abundantly reflected in Australian organisations’ increasing engagement with all kinds of collaboration tools and technologies, and the tools’ growing use in business. Access...

Strategic Path - Does the future of technology require IT?

Convergence is reforming the way we conduct business and transforming our daily lives. The now clichéd “blurring” of traditional roles through modern methods is creating paradigm shifts such as that of content between user and publis...

Ovum - UC to go!

Much has been said about unified communications (UC) initiatives in terms of platforms, software collaboration and integration with IP telephony systems. However, mobility seems to be the missing link in most discussions about UC, which always seem to ...

Strategic Path - Far-reaching communications in the far north

Building a major communications network is always challenging, but it’s doubly difficult when you’re trying to do it in the remote reaches of far north Queensland. Angus Kidman looks at how the Cape York Digital Network overcame its technic...

UniComm - Beyond the contact centre…

In 1995, Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema wrote The Discipline of Market Leaders. In it, they describe three strategic pathways that enterprises can take in order to achieve market dominance. These pathways are operational excellence, product leadershi...

SIP Forum - SIPconnect and the rationale for widespread adoption of SIP trunking

Making the most of VoIP IP PBXs are starting to dominate the enterprise equipment market. But TDM trunking remains the norm, unnecessarily limiting the advantages business customers can realise from IP voice in both capabilities and cost. The answer...

UniComm - The Emerging impact of Unified Communications

Making the most of your ‘people power’ By Don Van Doren, Principal, UniComm Consulting and Co-Founder, UCStrategies.com Unified communications (UC) is widely recognised as the ‘next big thing’ in communications capabiliti...

Strategic Path - Case Study #1: Quantifying UC Success

Measuring your business’ UC return on investment The transport and logistics industry is a fruitful environment for UC-based solutions. UC has enabled changes in business processes, where today we see everyone in our workforce as a knowledge w...

Strategic Path - Case Study #2: Convergence is a journey not a destination

McGrath-Nicol is a leading Australasian firm specialising in corporate advisory, forensic, transaction services and corporate recovery. Since separating from a ‘big four’ accounting frm in 2004, McGrath-Nicol has used the adoption of new te...

UniComm - Leveraging VAR and SI Talent

For unified communications success The best approach for your business By Marty Parker, Principal, UniComm Consulting, Co-founder UCStrategies.com Unified communications (UC) is now a proven business tool. Since the Strategic Path articles in ...

SIP Forum - Standardising SIP

Strategic Path talks to Marc Robins, President of SIP Forum LLC SP: Can you describe briefly the role of the SI P Forum and your position within it? MR: The SIP Forum was founded eight years ago as a non-profit IP communications industry associat...

Strategic Path - Unifying your phone systems: the Challenges for Management

Integrating and updating its communications systems for greater mobility provided major benefits for Wellington City Council, but also posed some unexpected challenges when it came to training, management and product lifecycles. What went well and what...

UniComm - Getting started in Unified Communications - Easily and Economically

The four steps to successful UC By Marty Parker, Principal, UniComm Consulting LLC Unified communications is truly gaining traction. The number of positive UC reference cases continues to grow rapidly. These reference cases report specific, high-RO...

Wainhouse - Do you see what I see in UC?

An in-depth look at new survey results By E. Brent Kelly, Wainhouse Research Some years ago, one of my college professors said: “What one perceives as truth is more important than what is truth.” He said this because people tend to act ...

Get smart about integrating voice says Angus Kidman

Unified communications is often bandied about as the ultimate vision for corporate networks, but setting up and cost-justifying any UC platform can be tricky. Strategic Path writer, Angus Kidman, looks at how to effectively map business processes to vo...

SIP Forum - The benefits of SIP Trunking.

Are you ready? By Janne Magnusson, VP Operations, Ingate Systems Many enterprises are already using VoIP. However, many are only using it for communication on the enterprise LAN. In this scenario VoIP is only being used as a one-to-one replacement ...

Strategic Path - The system integrator as the linchpin

The system integrator as the linchpin Regardless of how impressive a vendor’s technology is, it’s the systems integrator that can make or break a Voice over IP rollout in your business. The systems integrator is at the coalface &nda...

SIP Forum - SIP Trunking: A New Way VoIP Can Benefit Your Business

SIP Trunking: A New Way VoIP Can Benefit Your Business SIP trunking – using SIP to set up communications between an enterprise IP-PBX and service provider – offers SMEs an easy, cost-effective opportunity to access converged communicati...

Strategic Path - Cairns City Council: UC in a warm climate

UC in a warm climate When it comes to Unified Communications there are many questions you should be asking: What is the quantifiable ROI of Unified Communications? How do you successfully evolve to embrace UC and how do you prepare? How do you...

Strategic Path - Evans & Peck: Covering the globe with UC

Covering the globe with UC Mike Lorimer, CIO - Evans & Peck Group outlines the professional services company’s UC implementation and how it has reducing international travel, increasing communication and providing staff a sense of being...

Strategic Path - Mallesons Prove Quantifiable ROI and UC success

Quantifiable ROI and UC success The Strategic Path talks with Gerard Neiditsch, Executive Director — Business Integration & Technology, Mallesons Stephen Jaques about the firm’s recent “richer than UC” communications i...

Strategic Path - Mirvac builds on UC for global growth

Mirvac builds on UC for global growth Mirvac’s CIO, Chris Kennett talks with The Strategic Path about the company’s recent UC upgrade that will help its staff collaborate to overcome skills shortages. What is the specific Unified ...

Strategic Path - Optus moves to IP for productivity

Optus moves to IP for productivity The Strategic Path talks with Jon Wilkie, Director, Corporate Services at Optus about the benefits of and challenges in relocating the company’s head office. Can you tell us a little about what has now b...

Unicomm - Unified Communications - What, How, & the Big Rewards

Unified Communications - What, How, & the Big Rewards While enterprises can leverage generic UC tools to make some productivity gains, there are higher-gain improvements available to enterprises that start by improving business processes, using...

Strategic Path - Will 2008 be the Year of Unified Communications?

Will 2008 be the Year of Unified Communications? The beauty of Unified Communications (UC) is that all corporate communication solutions that hang off an IP platform, by default have now become UC. However, this is also the beast of Unified Comm...

Strategic Path - Crowne Plaza manages to get a triple play

Crowne Plaza manages to get a triple play Part of the worldwide InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley, which opened in October 2006, boasts150 rooms, 72 two-bedroom villas and conference facilities for up to 560 dele...

Strategic Path - Voice Integration on a Money Saving Spiral

Voice Integration on a Money Saving Spiral The integration of voice with enterprise information systems is nearing its tipping point; expected within two years to be a giveaway with most enterprise applications. The challenge for companies won't s...

Strategic Path - CIO Panel on the reality of IP telephony

The Strategic Path CIO Panel on the reality of IP telephony Moderator: Jim Berry, Publisher, Strategic Path to Converging Communications Panelist: Mark Jones, Infrastructure Manager for Corporate Express Panelist: Marcus Moufarrige, Chief Inf...

Strategic Path - Western Integration: Interview with the Office of Shared Services

Western Integration: Interview with the Office of Shared Services By 2008, the OSS will be staffed by corporate service professionals who will play a pivotal role in the largest corporate services reform process ever in WA. Working in this way re...

Strategic Path - Quality of Service: 'Better than Best Efforts' Networking with IP

Quality of Service: 'Better than Best Efforts' Networking with IP How many IT departments and office workers have wrestled with unpredictable performance of VPN links across the Internet? How many times has the solution been to 'buy more bandwidth'...

SIP Forum - SIP coming soon to a device near you

SIP coming soon to a device near you The Session Initiation Protocol, SIP, has been quietly becoming part of IP telephony and communications systems. Before SIP is declared the standard protocol for human communications of the future, it's time to...

Strategic Path - 2007 will be the year of the customer service war for Channels

A channel to success? By Kirsten Marsh Why service bundling? Why now? Strategic alliances What SMEs have to gain from market development If 2006 was the year of technology war in telecommunications, then 2007 will be the yea...

Strategic Path - Q&A with Garry Whatley, CIO Corporate Express

Movin’ on up! Q&A with Garry Whatley Chief Information Officer, Corporate Express Australia Motivation for upgrading The keys to successful migration Business benefits of advanced IP telephony Q: You are currently i...

SIP Forum - Why we all need a little SIP

Why we all need a little SIP Cullen Jennings gives Strategic Path writer Adam Baggs an insight into the world of SIP and its benefits. SIP or Session Initiation Protocol is becoming more and more fundamental to the way we all do business. As co...

Vendor Insights

Cisco - Networkers highlights the Power of Collaboration

Cisco’s annual Networkers conference in Brisbane let networking and IT experts from around the country learn about the latest technological developments, and how they can be harnessed to deliver collaborative solutions that offer real business be...

NSC Group - Realising the desktop continuum

Today, organisations of every size face a host of challenges. Pressure to deliver richer IT services while adapting to market, technology and organisational change is challenging IT departments to create more agile infrastructures that can keep pace wi...

Nortel - Do UC what I see?

Philip Goldie, Director, Enterprise Product Marketing, Nortel, Asia answers our questions SP: A lot of terms are now being brought to market – and with them some confusion – does Nortel see a difference between unified communications a...

Aspect - Contact centre intelligence

All too frequently, companies implement call routing solutions, outbound diallers and siloed performance optimisation products, such as campaign management or quality monitoring, in their contact centres with no real coordinated strategy for making the...

Nortel - The Hyperconnected - here they come! A white paper by IDC

A Global Look at the Exploding ‘Culture of Connectivity’ and Its Impact on the Enterprise Romina Aducci Pim Bilderbeek Holly Brown Seana Dowling Nora Freedman John Gantz Abner Germanow Takashi Manabe Alex Manfrediz Shalini Verma...

Nortel - How to evaluate Business Value for Unified Communications by Forrester Research

Unified Communications Support Multiple Business Process Improvements by Elizabeth Herrell with Brownlee Thomas, Ph. D. and Rachel Batiancila for IT Infrastructure & Operations Professionals Executive Summary Unified communications (UC) ...

3D Networks - 10 Avoidable Mistakes in Delivering Business Benefits from UC

Sidestepping the pitfalls By Chris Luxford, CEO 3D Networks Unified Communications (UC) continues to be a heavily overused “buzz word” driven particularly by IT solution vendors. Many industry reports, case studies and user impl...

CISCO - Case Study #3: Single System, multiple benefits

Integrating its communications systems onto a single platform has enabled pay TV provider Austar to reduce its call centre costs while also improving service levels to customers. How did it achieve that feat and what lessons have been learned? Over ...

Aspect Software - What contact centres can teach the rest of the organisation about unified communications

…and where performance optimisation solutions come into the picture By Michael Stelzer, Aspect Software, Country Manager, ANZ The business world is on a quest to break down information silos, and for good reason: when more people have acc...

IBM - Let's Get Together

Strategic Path talks UC with IBM’s Craig Campbell SP: the UC pitch has evolved beyond ‘personal productivity’ to ‘integrating UC into the business process’. Can you explain what this actually is, and how it is done, for t...

NSC Group - Event Driven Architectures in the Responsive Enterprise

Section 1: Introduction To be competitive in today’s real-time world requires greater business agility than ever before. Organizations and their people are working faster, and have to respond ever more quickly and effectively to real-time busi...

IBM - Achieving tangible business benefits with social computing

Introduction In the age of Web 2.0, Internet users are rewriting the rules of social interaction by harnessing a range of new technologies to create and sustain virtual communities forged around common interests. Communications channels such as blog...

IBM - Beyond converged networks: driving user productivity through Unified Communications and Collaboration

Executive summary Unified communications and collaboration strategies can help organizations deliver a user experience that brings together communications and collaboration silos across and beyond traditional business boundaries. By providing users ...

NSC Group - Maximizing Unified Communications for Your Business

Guidelines for Success in Deployment and Solution Optimization Section 1: Executive Summary Although Unified Communications (UC) is a term that’s frequently heard these days, finding clear – or even consistent – definitions can...

NEC - NEC's UNIVERGE(R) 360 - Enabling True Role-Based Services in Unified Business Communications

NEC’s UNIVERGE®360 - Enabling True Role-Based Services in Unified Business Communications Executive Summary Industry analyst research has revealed the top three issues on every executive’s mind – maintaining a competitive ad...

CISCO - The Business Value of Unified Communications

The Business Value of Unified Communications Introduction In today’s global environment, the vast majority of companies experience a set of continually increasing business pressures, regardless of industry or size. While not all companies e...

3D Networks - Are you ready for UC Change? Asks Chris Luxford, CEO of integrator 3D Networks.

Strategic Path interview with Chris Luxford, CEO of 3D Networks (Australia) SP: As 3D Networks is a global integrator: how do Australian businesses compare with the rest of the world in terms of deploying convergence and UC? How is the UC market in ...

Strategic Path - Strategic Path Integrator Roundtable: Successfully Integrating Unified Communications

Successfully Integrating Unified Communications When you do choose to take the path towards unified communications, a good partner and integrator is essential. Not only to help guide you through the maze of suppliers but also to manage the varie...

Dimension Data - Cairns City Council Case Study 2007

Cairns City Council Builds Unified Communications Infrastructure Dimension Data Deploys Unified Communications Infrastructure to Support Regional City Council’s Strategic Plan Executive Summary Cairns City Council (the ‘Council&r...

Dimension Data - Cairns City Council Builds Unified Communications Infrastructure

CAIRNS CITY COUNCIL BUILDS UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE Dimension Data Deploys Microsoft and Cisco Infrastructure to Support Regional City Council’s Strategic Plan Sydney, Australia, October 18, 2007 – Dimension Data today ...

3D Networks - 3D Networks Pharmaceutical Case Study

A VoIP enrichment of an existing PABX slashes costs. Tasmanian Alkaloids’ traditional telephone network was prohibitively expensive to expand, and maintenance time and costs were an increasing problem. 3D Networks upgraded the existing PABX...

Integ - Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley beds down converged network and IP communications

Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley beds down converged network and IP communications Part of the worldwide InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), the Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley boasts 150 rooms, 72 two-bedroom villas and conference facilities for up to 560 ...

Integ - From IP Telephony to flexible workplaces

From IP Telephony to flexible workplaces SP: We’re hearing a lot about companies implementing IP telephony at the moment. Given the investment an organisation makes in this regard, how can they get more out of the converged network, over a...

Gibson Quai - Good advice makes the convergence journey a walk in the park

Good advice makes the convergence journey a walk in the park Gibson Quai-AAS Consulting’s research arm Telsyte has just surveyed more than 900 Australian business decision makers on telecommunications technology adoption. The survey has confi...

NEC - Convergence in Telecoms

Convergence in Telecoms VoIP has finally broken free from its early image as a platform for cheap calls, judging by a growing number of customers – such as the City of Greater Bendigo – crediting it with making a significant difference ...

Prognosis - Multi-vendor IP telephony management: Challenges and Solutions

Multi-vendor IP telephony management: Challenges and Solutions This article from IP telephony management software vendor PROGNOSIS discusses the growing occurrence of multi-vendor IP telephony installations, and the challenges associated with manag...