Definitions, Benefits & ROI
Independent Insights
CIO Institute - A Killer app lies in wait
OK you IT dudes out there – I have a prediction and a challenge for you. The next big thing in IT is… productivity Mark II – connected communities. This revolution will feature executive and professional productivity driven throug...Posted: 28 October, 2008
IBRS - You can’t buy collaboration
Collaboration is not something you can buy. It is not a product. It is not even a solution. It is an approach to doing business. As such, collaboration initiatives must be viewed more as a transformative business project with IT support. Large-scale, m...Posted: 28 October, 2008
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 ...Posted: 28 October, 2008
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...Posted: 28 October, 2008
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...Posted: 28 October, 2008
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...Posted: 28 October, 2008
Ovum - The challenges of mobile UC
Claudio Castelli/Ovum Unified communications means simplifying the ways of communicating and collaborating by having fewer tools and interfaces to manage. A large portion of employees in the enterprise environment currently spend at least some of th...Posted: 26 October, 2008
Wainhouse Research - A case study on deploying a VNOC
An Example of a Video Managed Services / VNOC Offering This section provides information about the services included within the VNOC / video managed services offering from the sponsor of this white paper, York Telecom Corporation (YTC). YTC&rs...Posted: 18 August, 2008
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...Posted: 12 August, 2008
CIO Institute - Convincing Company Leaders to Invest in Unified Communications
The old business management paradigm is dead. Continue operating to it and you will go down at the helm of the ship – either you won’t get projects up, or your projects will die in the field says Danny Davis, Executive Director, CIO Institu...Posted: 12 August, 2008
Learntel - It's virtual meeting time!
Telepresence revisited By Carol Daunt Skyring It seems to have become ‘official’ since I wrote the last article on telepresence 10 months ago: telepresence equals videoconferencing! In a recent white paper, Telepresence on a Videoconf...Posted: 12 August, 2008
Ovum - New Knowledge Frontiers
How the internet is pushing out and opening up the frontiers of organisational knowledge Dr Steve Hodgkinson, Public Sector Research Director, Ovum Frontiers are interesting places: historically, the buffer zone between civilisation and wilderne...Posted: 12 August, 2008
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...Posted: 12 August, 2008
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...Posted: 12 August, 2008
IBRS - Unified Communications: Justifications and predictions
Looking to the future Building a business case for unified communications is currently more of an art than a science. Traditional return on investment (ROI) models are now inapplicable unless arbitrary values are placed on intangible benefits. However...Posted: 12 August, 2008
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 ...Posted: 12 August, 2008
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...Posted: 11 August, 2008
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...Posted: 11 August, 2008
Ovum - Branching Out
Telcos broaden the range for Managed Telepresence By David Molony This year is set to be the year of telepresence as a managed service. There’s still argument about whether telepresence is high-end HD videoconferencing, or something quite n...Posted: 11 August, 2008
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...Posted: 16 April, 2008
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 ...Posted: 16 April, 2008
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...Posted: 15 April, 2008
Strategic Path - Unified Communications: Hype or Hard Fact?
Unified Communications: Hype or Hard Fact? Just as you had got used to ‘VoIP’ becoming ‘IP Telephony’, along comes ‘Unified Communications’ and it is being tagged to everything. A new era of communications i...Posted: 04 November, 2007
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...Posted: 04 November, 2007
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...Posted: 04 November, 2007
CIO Institute - CIOs Harnessing the Hype
CIOs Harnessing the Hype CIOs can rise above the avalanche of misinformation in today's market by working out where their organisation stands on the path to IT maturity. Anyone who has encountered IT vendors' more hyped claims – such as, f...Posted: 04 July, 2007
Forrester Research - Unified Communcations merges with IP Telephony
Unified Communications merges with IP Telephony in 2007 IP communications has evolved from a replacement technology for business telephone systems into unified communication (UC) applications that improve worker productivity and reduce delays in bu...Posted: 04 July, 2007
Strategic Path - United Comms (r)evolution - Just around the corner
United Comms (r)evolution - Just around the corner There is seemingly unlimited potential for a unified communications strategy to transform a business process to such an extent that the results can and do provide the enterprise with a complete ...Posted: 04 July, 2007
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...Posted: 04 July, 2007
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...Posted: 04 July, 2007
Strategic Path - Beyond the Dialtone
Beyond the dialtone What leads organisations to adopt VoIP or unified communications, and what business benefits actually accrue as a result? Although vendors are keen to push the functionality of IP telephony and unified communications, potenti...Posted: 04 July, 2007
Telsyte - Who is influencing your telephony budget today?
Who is influencing your telephony budget today? Telephony vendors have spent countless dollars in identifying and building bridges to their prospects’ most influential executives. Some, for instance, have restructured their sales channels i...Posted: 04 July, 2007
Wainhouse - Unified Communications - Buyers Wanted
Unified Communications – Buyers Wanted E. Brent Kelly, Ph.D. Senior Analyst & Partner, Wainhouse Research Unified communications is an emerging market, fragmented in definition as well as in functionality. For the purposes of this a...Posted: 04 March, 2007
Wainhouse - Understanding Telepresence - Part 1
Understanding Telepresence – Part 1 Believe it or not, telepresence is not new. It has been more than a decade since the first telepresence solution was introduced to the public. For most of that time, the telepresence market consisted of a...Posted: 04 March, 2007
Strategic Path - Convergence - Show me the money!
Convergence: Show me the money! How Spotlight Stores, Accent Blinds, West Coast Eagles and Abigroup reaped IP telephony rewards By Dylan Law, Strategic Path writer Cutting through the latest VoIP hype Real-world case studies M...Posted: 04 March, 2007
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...Posted: 04 March, 2007
Forrester Research - UC Merges With IP Telephony
Unified Communications Merges With IP Telephony In 2007 by Elizabeth Herrell with Simon Yates and Christine E. Atwood Executive Summary IP communications has evolved from a replacement technology for business telephone systems into unified co...Posted: 04 March, 2007
Forrester Research - UC - What You Need To Know
Unified Communications: What You Need To Know Evaluating Providers And Products For SIP-Based Business Solutions by Elizabeth Herrell with Erica Driver, Robert Whiteley, and Christine E. Atwood Executive Summary Unified communications (UC) h...Posted: 04 March, 2007
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...Posted: 30 October, 2008
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...Posted: 28 October, 2008
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...Posted: 27 October, 2008
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...Posted: 26 October, 2008
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) ...Posted: 26 October, 2008
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...Posted: 12 August, 2008
ServicePoint - Video-as-a-Service: keeping it simple
Implementing videoconferencing can be a difficult task for many businesses, but by taking a serviceoriented approach, you can get all of the benefits without the cost and the complexity. ServicePoint’s Video-asa- Service (VaaS) offerings allow yo...Posted: 12 August, 2008
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 ...Posted: 12 August, 2008
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...Posted: 12 August, 2008
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...Posted: 12 August, 2008
IBM - Case Study: Streamlined communications and desktop video an easy sell for Westfield
Challenge Westfield’s old PABX system was out-of-date and running out of capacity. The company wanted to install a telecommunications system that would streamline communications across the business, including remote offices and employees on th...Posted: 11 August, 2008
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...Posted: 11 August, 2008
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...Posted: 11 August, 2008
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 ...Posted: 11 August, 2008
Aspect - An Evaluative Report of the Knowledge Worker's Role in the Contact Center, 2008
Unified Communications strategies are largely focused on improving employee productivity. The concept can be extended to encompass contact centers and customer-facing support functions across the enterprise to enhance communications between organizatio...Posted: 11 August, 2008
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...Posted: 11 August, 2008
Aspect - Unified Communications...Keeping the Customer in the Equation
Unified Communications – Talk of the Town Everyone is talking about unified communications. But, how they are defining it and why they are considering implementing it varies from enterprise to enterprise. Many unified communications strategies...Posted: 18 April, 2008
3Com - 3Com(R) Open Services Networking - Freedom to Innovate
3Com® Open Services Networking - Freedom to Innovate INTRODUCTION Imagine an open and customizable network infrastructure that delivers the freedom to innovate, differentiate services and simplify operations—a network that can reduce co...Posted: 17 April, 2008
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...Posted: 17 April, 2008
NEC - 360-Degree Communications in a 24/7 Business World
Role-based communications – the future of communications technology By Dr Steven Stenton, NEC Australia Business today is faster, more complex and more demanding than ever. Shareholders have increased pressure on the C-suite to drive revenue ...Posted: 16 April, 2008
3Com - Unified Communications for the SMB. Interview with Peter Chai, VP Asia for 3Com
Small, but Perfectly Formed: Strategic Path puts the pertinent questions to 3Com’s Peter Chai SP: With your new offering you are targeting organisations with 30 to 250 phone users. What particular pressures and problems do SMBs face that don&r...Posted: 16 April, 2008
Cisco - Making the most of Technology Now! Cisco's Sheila Jordan reveals how Cisco is Embracing Web 2.0
An insider’s view of how Cisco is embracing Web 2.0 for internal productivity gains and a richer employee experience Interview with Sheila Jordan, VP, Communication and Collaboration IT SP: What is the aim behind the Cisco “Communicatio...Posted: 16 April, 2008
Aspect - UC Calling: Michael Stelzer recommends U.C. for the Contact Centre
Why you need unified communications in your call centre. By Michael Stelzer, Aspect Software, Country Manager, Australia & New Zealand On March 10 2008, Aspect Software issued a press release announcing that it is re-positioning the company&rsq...Posted: 15 April, 2008