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5 Steps to Unified Communications
<<<... "You have a wide array of tech knowledge and skills among end workers, affecting their ability to take up new user interfaces and new applications," said Dennis Karlinsky, principal group program manager of the Unified Communications team at Microsoft. The act of introducing something as seemingly simple as presence could easily get complicated, as users need to understand what all the red and green lights showing up in Outlook, Excel or Word really mean.
How to best communicate depending on that presence information will take some getting used to. To adequately prepare the user base for the new technology, implementers must provide training that meets the users needs. Taking the time to put together a manual is a logical step for implementers, but the interactive nature of UC and presence would be better served by live, hands-on training sessions or at least an in-depth and engaging Webcast. Karlinsky recommends going a step further.
Users need to understand the options that are available to them, as there are numerous devices and accessories that could be part of each persons personal-area network for unified communications. Users should have the opportunity to select the devices that best suit their needs, so, for example, the requirements of the hands-free Bluetooth crowd will be met as well as the needs of those who prefer the cold comfort of a handset against their ears. "Form factor is superimportant.
Have open houses to show the devices, so people can come and play with them physically," said Karlinsky. "Our partners and systems integrators that did that had a much faster ramp-up time in terms of getting end-user adoption." Prior to elementary training and device selection, however, it is incumbent upon UC implementers to understand how the companys users conduct business on a daily basis to fully understand what needs to be unified. "Think about what is in the users work spaces," said Ciscos Thompson. "Ask what needs to get the job done that supports the companys competitive advantage and that will tell you what to think about as you go through the process of unification." more>>>