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Taking Lync to the Limit: Deployment Tips to Turbo-Charge Your Rollout

TS_Guest| April 19, 2012 - last edited May 17, 2012
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By Dragana Beara

 

Here’s something that seems obvious: To get your money’s worth out of powerful new technology, first you have to get the company to deploy it. Then you have to get users to use it properly.

 

Presence and instant messaging (IM) are known as core unified communications features, and bring big benefits to organizations that are new to this technology. In the past, users were happy to have IM and presence only, but today things are different. New generations of workers are accustomed to Skype, FaceTime, and similar on-line and mobile applications; they tend to expect the same kinds of technology in their workplace communications.

 

According to Wainhouse research, OCS and Lync are the most widely propagated UC platforms of today. Judging by the same survey, it seems they are also the most likely platforms for tomorrow. A common mistake IT organizations make when they deploy OCS or Lync is to pause or altogether stop their deployment after rolling out IM and presence. When users see the Lync and OCS features on their screen grayed-out (not enabled), it’s frustrating. In addition to slowing down the employees, limited OCS/Lync deployment causes the business as a whole to miss out on a lot of opportunities for productivity increase and cost reduction.

 

Why don’t all Lync customers deploy such features as PC-to-PC calling, click-to-call (phone), desktop sharing for collaboration, and desktop video conferencing? The common excuse is the lack of resources, expertise, and time. These factors, combined, make the final cost of the project hard to predict.

 

To dissolve these barriers HP has created the HP AppSystem for Microsoft Lync. There’s really nothing like it. The AppSystem includes a hardware platform for Lync deployment, combined with the services and reference architectures for Lync, Microsoft UC, and Polycom video deployments. We have included the Network Assessment for Voice and Video as the first service to be performed, so you know whether your network is ready. It is a simple but significant step, as it eliminates the anxiety of deploying voice, desktop video, and conferencing services. Because HP AppSystem also includes all necessary services to deploy Lync, there is no need to pull your IT specialists off their existing projects.

 

If you buy the HP AppSystem for Micorosft Lync with Polycom integration, your remote workforce will be able to participate in office meetings by connecting their Lync desktop video conferencing sessions with meetings that are taking place in Polycom video conferencing rooms at your offices. In addition to this employee benefit, your company will experience the business benefits such as a reduction in travel costs and real estate costs due to the reduced use of office space, and lower telecom costs due to the reduced use of audio bridges. Lync-Polycom integration also allows for better video resource scheduling; many of our clients have found that this feature brings a much greater return on their video investment by making video easier to adopt as part of their corporate culture.

 

Speaking of corporate culture: Unified communications is a very user-centric technology that will provide more benefit the more it is leveraged by the end-user community. When you are looking to gain great business benefits and ROI on a unified communications project, it is essential to address the need for user adoption, proper use of the technology, and change in corporate communications culture. It is important to note that user training is not completed by just providing end users with a user manual or tutorial for the use of Lync.

 

For example, by deploying Lync, many of our clients have moved office workers to a work-from-home program in order to achieve cost savings. It’s a great idea. But without adequately training the managers of these teams to manage remote workforces with the new UC technology, the company runs the risk of having its promising new cost-saving program end in underperformance or even failure. To hedge your success, HP created a Workforce Transformation framework to help you with a) the correct training and b) the necessary cultural change. These two are as valuable for the success of a Lync project as the flawless technology rollout.

 

Lync is a set of powerful new communication tools. The idea is to get them into use fast and cost-effectively. HP AppSystem for Microsoft Lync was designed for that. What’s needed next is good management of the resulting change, which Workforce Transformation can help you do.

 

I’ve seen it frequently: smooth technology rollout combined with good change management can put these new tools into confident hands that will leverage them to the maximum and provide your organization with the greatest business benefits.

 

Learn more about HP AppSystem for Microsoft Lync

 

Learn more from HP unified communications experts.

 

Watch a short video that tells how the University of the West of England partnered with HP to provide students with a modern, transformed IT environment.

 

 

Related Blogs:

 

It's Inevitable, It's Viral: Pervasive User Adoption of MS Lync  Users love the way Lync eliminates routine communication chores.

 

A Shortcut to Unified Communications: Making Microsoft Lync Work on Your Network  How HP AppSystem for Microsoft Lync can help you bypass months of research and custom architecture.

 

Unified Communications Saves the Day: The Power of Microsoft Lync Polycom The right unified communications tools can hugely reduce your stress levels on a difficult day.

 

Compressing the Deployment Timeline for Microsoft Lync: HP AppSystem for Microsoft Lync  Get on the fast track to unified communications.

 

 An Addiction That Supports the Way I Work: HP AppSystem for Microsoft Lync  A look at what HP AppSystem for Microsoft Lync can do for communication and productivity.

 

Dragana Beara is a Virtual Workplace Solutions Portfolio Manager. Dragana started her career at HP in 1996 as a recent graduate of the University of Waterloo, where she earned her B.A.Sc. degree in Systems Design Engineering. Over the past 15 years she has had opportunities to enhance her skills and bring new insights and increased value to her clients through varied experiences in product management, account management, consulting sales and most recently as a Global Virtual Workplace Portfolio Manager. She lives in Toronto, Canada, with her husband and two young children.

 

 

Come to HP Discover2012. Explore strategies and technologies that shape next decade of IT. Register now http://bit.ly/TSRegs

 

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Tags: Change Management| MS Lync| Unified communications
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