Enhancing worker productivity is easier than you think
By TerryAnn Fitzgerald, SMB Solutions Marketing Manager, HP Networking
Over the years, many companies have rolled out different technologies in a piecemeal fashion: a telephone system here, an email system there, a video conferencing system somewhere else. Then you realize that nothing is connected and your workers have to log into multiple systems to do something that should be simple, such as sharing documents while on a video conference call and looking up the immediate availability of another colleague whom they wish to hop on the call. If only your systems were integrated.
Indeed, IDC notes that “forward-looking SMBs are selectively using a range of tools including voice-over-IP (VoIP); conferencing technologies that support audio, Web, and video; and unified messaging, which integrates voice and data messaging. Still, relatively few have implemented a comprehensive, end-to-end unified communications (UC) system that can deliver connectivity and collaboration capabilities beyond the sum of its separate parts.”¹
Microsoft helps your staff become even more productive
We’re all familiar with Microsoft® productivity applications. I’m going to guess that you use Microsoft Office, Outlook and SharePoint® in your company. Microsoft has taken personal productivity tools one step further with a suite of unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions. Microsoft® Lync® helps mid-market companies become even more productive by integrating diverse communication tools such as email, video conferencing and telecommunications for streamlined and improved connectivity between users.
Microsoft and HP: A strong partnership for the mid-market
To reap the full benefits of Lync, your organization should leave nothing to chance – especially your IT infrastructure. With HP solutions that integrate with Microsoft Lync, your organization can intelligently and easily evolve to an advanced flexible, reliable architecture that meets the demands of UC&C. By deploying Microsoft Lync on HP Converged Infrastructure platforms you’ll provide users with a consistent user experience to increase employee productivity.
If your staff is familiar with Microsoft Outlook and SharePoint, it won’t take them long to get up and running with Lync because it integrates those same applications. Furthermore, users will be able to access their applications using any device they prefer, at any time and from any location. The Lync solution integrated with HP platforms for mid-market customers is part of a strategic global initiative between HP and Microsoft to deliver UC&C solutions that help customers lower costs and rapidly enhance employee productivity.
HP’s solution components include:
- HP Networking FlexNetwork Architecture – provides an agile, consistent, secure, high performance platform that is easier to use and cost effective to maintain
- HP Survivable Branch Communications zl Module (SBM) – with Microsoft Lync embedded on an HP zl Module and configured into the network with an HP 5400/8200 zl switch, this solution provides telephony communications survivability in a branch office package to ensure employees stay connected during WAN or centralized hosting outages
- HP IP phones, including the HP 4110 and 4120 – with two cost-effective, easy-to-use, and fully optimized phones for Microsoft Lync, HP delivers a more robust and easier to support phone to contain costs and reduce IT support
- HP ProLiant Gen8 Servers – re-engineered with more than 150 innovations that speed serviceability, increase quality, and reduce potential causes of unplanned downtime
- HP personal computers – offers Lync-optimized PCs and notebooks with built-in microphones, webcams, and speakers that are tested to ensure a quality voice and video experience
Flexibility for diverse requirements
As a mid-market company, your needs are diverse. It could be as simple as requiring a modern telephone system that works. Or it could be unifying messaging so all your voicemail, faxes and email go into a single mailbox. Imagine no longer having to log into separate voicemail and email accounts―or run to the fax machine―to retrieve your messages. With a UC&C solution, you can access―and send―your messages from the same inbox. For midsize organizations, your reach may extend to branch offices where you need to ensure workers there remain productive, even when the connection to headquarters goes down.
Whatever your needs, there’s one requirement that is common among all mid-size companies: the need to increase productivity without blowing your budget. Microsoft Lync provides some fantastic benefits, including:
- Reduced cost through converged communications: You can minimize travel costs by holding virtual meetings through integrated audio, video and web conferencing. You can also reduce PSTN calling charges because you’ll be using your IP networks to carry voice traffic.
- Improved collaboration and presence: Users can quickly collaborate in real time using instant messaging and location-awareness features in Office and SharePoint. Users can hold ad hoc intercompany audio, video and web conferencing, or simply make a phone call―all through a single consistent, familiar interface.
- Easy deployment, migration and management: Because Lync is based on HP Converged Infrastructure, you can be sure that it fully supports HP storage, networking and server solutions and is managed through a common management platform.
Give your employees a productivity boost―let’s work together to make technology work easier for them and to make it easier for your employees to collaborate, wherever they are.
Find out more about HP and Microsoft Lync. Download our brochure, “Ignite collaboration and worker productivity: UC&C solutions from HP and Microsoft,” to discover how UC&C can transform your business.
Let’s keep the conversation going. I invite you to share your UC&C transformation stories here.
>> Learn more about HP Networking products and solutions.
>> Follow HP Networking on Twitter and Google+ | Join HPN LinkedIn Community | Like us HPN Facebook
__________________________________________________
¹Source: IDC, “Unified Communications in U.S. Small and Medium-Sized Business, 2011: Growing Demand for Communicati...” (IDC #230314)
Microsoft, SharePoint and Lync are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
