Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model

Dimension Data’s experience in deploying unified communications projects across multiple industries and geographies has given us valuable insight into the challenges, best practices and technologies in this space. By using this vast experience, we have developed the Unified Communications Development Model to help you prioritise your investment in unified communications.

The Unified Communications Development Model is a tool that enables you to cycle through the critical reflection points of unified communications development in your organisation. It clearly maps the current stage of where you are today when it comes to the various disciplines of unified communications, the desired future state and a development path to achieve the organisation’s objectives.

The model is one of the great proprietary tools that showcases Dimension Data’s expertise in the area of unified communications.

Do you know where you are and where you’re going?The best starting point for any planning exercise is taking stock of where you are today. From there, you can progress to gaining an understanding of where you want to be in the future. The plan will then enable you to get from where you are today to that future state. Dimension Data’s Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model is a practical and pragmatic strategic tool that assesses an organisation’s current competence and capability in the area of communications and collaboration against a set of operational and strategic criteria. The tool also helps you to understand where you want to go and how to get there.

How does the model work?The Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model was developed by our communications and collaboration experts to bring measurement and direction to communications and collaboration planning. We use the model to measure your organisation against a set of operational and strategic competency

Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model

areas to determine its current position and aspirations. Once your organisation’s operational and strategic competencies are known, our consultants use their unified communications and collaboration best practice experience to plot your organisation on the Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model under one of the following development stages: Basic, Converged, Unified, Optimised.

The output plots two points for each competency: a current state or ‘as-is’, and a target state or ‘to-be’ position. We also help you to plan how to achieve the ‘to-be’. Our consultants discuss next actions such as technology purchases, deeper consulting engagements or projects that centre on corporate culture or end-user training.

The Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model can be used as an ongoing mechanism for strategic engagement. You can track your progress towards the ‘to be’ state using the roadmap.

the competencies

operational strategic

1. Technology 1. Architecture

2. Management of Operations 2. Business Integration

3. Cost Management 3. Strategic Value

4. Skills 4. User Segmentation

5. User Adoption 5. User Experience

6. Management Information 6. Governance and Sustainability

Roa

dmap

As-is-consensu

s

To-be-consensus

How do we do it?To determine an organisation’s positioning on the Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model, Dimension Data facilitates a one-day workshop to identify strengths and weaknesses within the organisation around unified communications. Stakeholders from all areas of the organisation, i.e. the IT organisation or senior business owners who are familiar with the strategy of the organisation, are invited to attend. Getting the people from different parts of your organisation together will ensure that various perspectives are incorporated.

The Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model is a strategic process that cycles through the critical reflection points of unified communications development

Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Management Cycle

The UCCDM is completed through facilitated workshops, which provide ‘as-is’ (as your operations are at present) and ‘to-be’ (the level you would realistically like to see your operations at in a reasonable timeframe) outputs as well as discussion on road map requirements

• Industry knowledge and best practice context provided based on experience in the unified communications space

• Relative strengths and weaknesses discussed

• Roadmap requirements discussed and next actions agreed

Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model

Benefits of Dimension Data’s Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model:• Establishes focus and priority

for unified communications development in your organisation

• Ascertains how to optimise your communications tools to:

– Decrease costs (i.e. by reducing office space, cutting down on travelling or telephony costs)

– Enable employees to collaborate

– Reduce the latency of business process that poor communications introduce; and

– Allow employees to work flexibly

• Ensures a single vision in your organisation regarding unified communications

• Assists in optimising existing unified communications initiatives

• Serves as an educational process to explain the various technologies to business users

• Assists the IT department to justify the expenditure of the unified communications project

• Provides a common language to start discussing the future benefits of unified communications

Why consider our Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model?The Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model can be ideally used as a starting point for your strategic planning process, as a progress-check against planned projects or as a review of the projects already implemented. We ensure that initiatives in the people, process and technology areas are founded in the correct strategic context, are prioritised correctly and will work together to leverage your investment in unified communications.

The Next Steps

Step 1 Are you considering how to optimise your investment in unified communications?

Step 2 Contact Dimension Data to find out more about setting up a Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model Workshop

Step 3Engage and enlist all the relevant stakeholders and arrange a Unified Communications and Collaboration Development Model workshop with Dimension Data

“ Getting people from different parts of the organisation together ensures that various perspectives are incorporated.”

Stra

teg

ic D

evel

op

men

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Operational Development

Basic

Roadmap

As Is

Optimised

Converged

UnifiedTo Be

Example of output following the workshop

For further information visit: www.dimensiondata.comCS / DDMS–1186 11/12 © Copyright Dimension Data 2012

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