Special Focus
 Fast track UC adoption
Indian enterprises are increasingly adopting unified communications to cut travel costs, enhance productivity and foster collaborative practices
By Srikanth RP
“The economic crisis has had a positive impact on the adoption of unified communications (UC) tools. The requirements of organizations in the current economic situation and the features that UC tools offer, namely reducing costs while simultaneously improving productivity, mirror each other,” says Sivarama Krishnan, Executive Director, Performance Improvement, PricewaterhouseCoopers. “UC can be integrated with critical business processes and business applications which can result in faster service delivery to customers.”
According to him, UC tools have become popular as they allow organizations to expand operations without incurring additional expenditure on infrastructure. Organizations have also been able to cut down on the telephony and conferencing costs by replacing the dial-in services with IP-based capabilities.
As most UC solution deployments yield a fast ROI, Indian enterprises have started adopting UC tools on a fast scale. Says Michael Yu, Director, Network Solutions Group, TSG, APJ, HP, “UC solutions yield cost savings that can enable investment in areas that significantly change business processes. This will help in achieving better productivity and customer satisfaction. For example, savings from travel expenses through UC can now be invested in Telepresence solutions, which can, in turn, be used for customer meetings, and new product introductions to drive further cost savings.”
As more Indian organizations go global, UC tools are fast becoming crucial in connecting effectively with the parent organization. “The combination of mobility solutions and applications enhanced with UC-based communication capabilities is diminishing the need for in-person meetings. Visual collaboration technologies are being viewed as business enablers in this tough economic scenario, as a tool for business continuity and for managing a dispersed workforce, customers, and partners,” says Anshul Dhingra, Senior Marketing Manager, India and Saarc, Polycom.
Adds Sunanda Das, Managing Director, Cable & Wireless India, “Unified interface means that employees can access information no matter where this is held, at any time and on any device, thereby allowing the mobile workforce to have continued access to information, whether individuals are at home, onsite or at work.”
A concept not a product
Contrary to general perception UC is a portfolio of solutions and not merely a product. Benjamin Green, UC&C Solutions Manager, Asia-Pacific, Verizon Business, agrees, “UC is a not a product, but a concept or a strategy. It is a set of tools that brings together disparate or previously separated communications and collaboration systems into a unified architecture.” These include communication media such as voice services (telephony and audio conferencing), video services (video conferencing, desktop conferencing, and telepresence), and data services (web conferencing, IM, and e-mail).
The beauty of UC is that people are not tied down to devices or applications. “A person could seamlessly move from IM to e-mail to a video chat, which could be integrated into the application that he is working on,” says Shivasankar K, Country Manager, LifeSize (India). “The intelligence in the UC system will enable messages to be routed based on policies set by the user. If the person you have made a video call to in a UC environment is not available to take the call, then the call could be routed to his cell phone or as a voice mail to his inbox.”
The true essence of UC lies in providing a unified experience and in removing the complexity of the multiple modes of communication channels. Vinod K, Director, Unified Communications, Avaya GlobalConnect, simplifies, “A good comparison would be how most of us do our utility bill payments from a single account via the web, instead of taking four bills and going to the nearest utility organization payment counter to make these payments.”
“UC is a philosophy that unifies all means of communication, instead of working in silos. By breaking these silos, UC tools bring in a synergy that allows organizations to free the communication from the device,” says Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager, UC, Cisco India and Saarc.
Depending upon the size of the organization, the adoption of UC tools can begin in different phases. For example, compared to a large enterprise, SMBs will start small, taking baby steps before they are fully confident of the ROI. Sanish KB, Analyst, Gartner, agrees: “In India, many organizations in both the SMB segments and large enterprises are considering IP telephony as the stepping stone for their future UC investment plans.”
Once confident of ROI, organizations gradually start expanding. “A few years ago, UC meant only ‘voice.’ Then it evolved into messaging. Now, more critically, as the demand for cost savings go up and the call for green technology gets louder, video has been thrown into the mix,” opines Dinesh Sehgal, Regional Director, India, Tandberg.
Creating virtual teams
The best example of how UC can contribute to an organization’s efficiencies can be seen in the case of Wipro Technologies. India’s number three IT software services firm in terms of revenues with geographically dispersed teams, Wipro uses UC tools to collaborate on projects. Today, such dispersed teams can conduct web-based meetings, share desktops, and collaborate for presentations. These meetings are possible due to an infrastructure which ensures that users have the latest online presence information on all team members and partners. An average 30,000 users daily log on to the IM at Wipro.
Wipro is now creating a ‘People Supply Chain’ model that allows the creation of virtual teams. Laxman Badiga, CIO, Wipro Technologies, believes that this concept will change the cost dynamics and efficiencies of outsourcing.
“The objective is to have the capability to tap the expertise and skills of people, wherever they are located—in small towns or in established cities—and connect them with a platform that facilitates creation of virtual teams. The impact on the industry will be huge since it will allow talent to be tapped at will, and without any geographical hindrances,” emphasizes Badiga.
Thanks to UC, Wipro has been able to save close to 100 trips per year for piloted projects, with approximate savings of $2.5 million. In addition, it has succeeded in paving the way for a new delivery model which demonstrates the truly transformative power of UC.
Similarly, Infosys, India’s number two software services company in terms of revenue, is using the power of UC to increase employee productivity. The firm uses IP telephony extensively, sees clear benefits through ease in communications between co-workers across locations.
“A unified interface for multiple channels of communication and collaboration has helped us to significantly improve employee productivity as co-workers can be reached at the first try. The virtual team concept is a reality today, since based on the presence information, we are able to initiate collaboration from any application or device” says Muralikrishna K, Vice President and Head, Computers and Communication Division, Infosys Technologies.
For organizations with a global presence, an effective collaboration tool is a must and this is where UC systems can make a big impact. “Though e-mail is a good communication tool, it falls short because of its lack of ability to facilitate real-time collaboration. Deploying Microsoft Office Communication Server (OCS) has aided faster decision making and resulted in increased employee productivity,” says Arvind Tawde, Senior Vice President and CIO, Mahindra & Mahindra. “Significant reduction in e-mail trails, follow-up mails and reminder mails has also enabled employees to tackle important issues appropriately, and increased productive output.”
Today, Wipro has deployed Microsoft OCS for more than 6,000 employees who now collaborate using any medium (PC, PDA, IP phone, fax, e-mail, voice, video or chat).
Besides using IM, employees in the Mahindra & Mahindra Group today conduct group chats for opinions or approvals. As the OCS is tightly integrated with the mailing system and the Intranet platform, the presence indicator is seen throughout in Outlook, Word and Intranet sites of Mahindra & Mahindra. This has drastically reduced the time taken for tasks—especially those where multiple levels of approvals are needed.
Transforming business functions
With its ability to facilitate real-time collaboration, enterprises are now using UC to transform their business functions. At Infosys, UC tools are being used in design and architecture reviews, in large deal pursuits and for co-creating Intellectual Property using its large distributed workforce. Using the same platform, Infosys holds virtual meetings for activities related to cross functional initiatives and discussions related to regional and global sales activities.
With current restrictions on travel, UC can be used effectively to deepen relationships with key customers. For example, to collaborate with partners and customers Wipro has created a network called Extended Work Environment. “More than 10 customers are already on this network, and this allows us to establish instant communication with them,” says Vikas Srivastava, VP, Technology Infrastructure Services, Wipro Infotech.
While UC has been used primarily for slashing travel costs, in Wipro’s case, UC tools have been well integrated into business processes. “We use UC tools for knowledge acquisition, customer interface, virtual trainings and leadership meetings,” says Srivastava. UC can play a pivotal role in the sales function too, as the team can immediately communicate with domain experts, and take effective decisions.
In the future, as more and more applications are embedded with collaborative capabilities, the associated impact is expected to be huge. For example, if the inventory of a particular product falls below a certain level, the production system which is tightly integrated with the UC system can shoot off an alert via multiple delivery channels—an automated voice alert, fax or a SMS.
At the Mahindra & Mahindra Group, some of the effective usages by different departments have been in the areas of remote training, getting real-time updates from regional offices and for improving collaboration especially in R&D. The corporate IT team based in Mumbai, conducts remote application training for users at Rudrapur (Uttarakhand) and Zaheerabad (Andhra Pradesh). The trainer interacts with remote participants using UC tools.
Patel Engineering, a firm in the domain of infrastructure development, faced a huge issue in interviewing candidates based in remote locations. The firm now uses a solution from a firm called PeopleLink Corporate Solutions, which has helped it interview candidates from outstation remote locations. Says TL Sharma, Assistant General Manager, Patel Engineering, “We used to lose out on good candidates as we could not interview them on time. Today, we can not only interview candidates remotely, but the time taken for interviewing candidates has dropped from a week to a single day. We can also use the same system for sharing presentations for training-related activities.”
When seen in the context of segments such as the financial services industry, the impact of UC tools can be huge. Whenever new products are launched, most financial services firms find it difficult to service customers adequately, due to the unavailability of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). With the help of UC tools, SMEs can be based in one central location and still deliver the same level of customer experience, as they would have done, when based locally. Explains Zia of Cisco, “While SMEs cannot be everywhere physically, they can be at any location virtually with the help of UC tools. In essence, you can have virtual banking SMEs situated at the bank’s headquarters or at a central level.” Zia says that use the power of UC tools a company with global presence can even standardize the release of products across countries.
UC is the next big opportunity for solutions providers. Not only does UC present a significant market opportunity for partners but if deployed internally it can enhance business and communications processes as well and could truly be transformative. |